1.
1080s in England
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Events from the 1080s in England. Monarch – William I, William II108014 May – William Walcher, Bishop of Durham, is killed by rebel Northumbrians, autumn – Williams son Robert Curthose sent to invade Scotland, reaches as far as Falkirk. Robert Curthose builds a castle on the River Tyne, now Newcastle upon Tyne, gundulf of Rochester begins building of Rochester Cathedral. William I, in a letter, refuses to accept Pope Gregory VII as his overlord,1081 William campaigns in Wales, reaching as far as St Davids. 1082 Odo of Bayeux arrested, and forfeits his Earldom and estates,1083 William faces a revolt in the province of Maine in Normandy. 1084 Construction of Worcester Cathedral begins,1085 Threatened invasion from Denmark aborted after a rebellion there. 25 December – William commissions the Domesday Book,10861 August – Domesday Book is presented to William at Old Sarum. 26 September – coronation of William II at Westminster Abbey,25 December – Odo of Bayeux re-instated as Earl of Kent. An early fire of London destroys much of the city including St Pauls Cathedral,1088 April – Odo of Bayeux leads the Rebellion of 1088 against his nephew William II. The church of Gloucester Abbey is among the places laid waste in the rebellion, july – William defeats the rebels, and exiles Odo to Normandy. Construction of the White Tower of the Tower of London probably largely completed,1089 May – See of Canterbury left vacant after the death of Lanfranc. Construction begins on Gloucester Cathedral and Tewkesbury Abbey

2.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years

3.
Edward the Confessor
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Edward the Confessor, also known as Saint Edward the Confessor, was among the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England, and usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066. When Edward died in 1066, he was succeeded by Harold Godwinson, Edgar the Ætheling, who was of the House of Wessex, was proclaimed king after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, but never ruled and was deposed after about eight weeks. As discussed below, historians disagree about Edwards fairly long reign and his nickname reflects the traditional image of him as unworldly and pious. Confessor reflects his reputation as a saint who did not suffer martyrdom, some portray this kings reign as leading to the disintegration of royal power in England and the advance in power of the House of Godwin, because of the infighting after his heirless death. About a century later, in 1161, Pope Alexander III canonised the late king, Saint Edward was one of Englands national saints until King Edward III adopted Saint George as the national patron saint c. His feast day is 13 October, celebrated by both the Church of England and the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Edward was the seventh son of Æthelred the Unready, and the first by his second wife, Emma of Normandy. Edward was born between 1003 and 1005 in Islip, Oxfordshire, and is first recorded as a witness to two charters in 1005 and he had one full brother, Alfred, and a sister, Godgifu. In charters he was always listed behind his older half-brothers, showing that he ranked behind them, during his childhood England was the target of Viking raids and invasions under Sweyn Forkbeard and his son, Cnut. Following Sweyns seizure of the throne in 1013, Emma fled to Normandy, followed by Edward and Alfred, Sweyn died in February 1014, and leading Englishmen invited Æthelred back on condition that he promised to rule more justly than before. Æthelred agreed, sending Edward back with his ambassadors, Æthelred died in April 1016, and he was succeeded by Edwards older half-brother Edmund Ironside, who carried on the fight against Sweyns son, Cnut. According to Scandinavian tradition, Edward fought alongside Edmund, as Edward was at most thirteen years old at the time, Edmund died in November 1016, and Cnut became undisputed king. Edward then again went into exile with his brother and sister, in the same year Cnut had Edwards last surviving elder half-brother, Eadwig, executed, leaving Edward as the leading Anglo-Saxon claimant to the throne. Edward spent a quarter of a century in exile, probably mainly in Normandy and he probably received support from his sister Godgifu, who married Drogo of Mantes, count of Vexin in about 1024. In the early 1030s Edward witnessed four charters in Normandy, signing two of them as king of England, Edward was said to have developed an intense personal piety during this period, but modern historians regard this as a product of the later medieval campaign for his canonisation. In Frank Barlows view in his lifestyle would seem to have been that of a member of the rustic nobility. He appeared to have a slim prospect of acceding to the English throne during this period, Cnut died in 1035, and Harthacnut succeeded him as king of Denmark. It is unclear whether he was intended to have England as well and it was therefore decided that his elder half-brother Harold Harefoot should act as regent, while Emma held Wessex on Harthacnuts behalf. In 1036 Edward and his brother Alfred separately came to England, Alfred was captured by Godwin, Earl of Wessex who turned him over to Harold Harefoot

4.
Harold Godwinson
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Harold Godwinson, often called Harold II, was the last Anglo-Saxon king of England. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October and his death marked the end of Anglo-Saxon rule over England. Harold was an earl and member of a prominent Anglo-Saxon family with ties to Cnut the Great. Upon the death of Edward the Confessor in January 1066, the Witenagemot convened and chose Harold to succeed, he was crowned in Westminster Abbey. In late September, he repelled an invasion by rival claimant Harald Hardrada of Norway before marching his army back south to meet William the Conqueror at Hastings some two weeks later. Harold was a son of Godwin, the powerful Earl of Wessex, gythas brother was Ulf the Earl, who married Cnuts sister Estrith. This made Ulf the son-in-law of King Sweyn Forkbeard, Ulf, Godwin was the son of Wulfnoth, probably a thegn and a native of Sussex. Godwin began his career by supporting King Edmund Ironside, but switched to supporting King Cnut by 1018. Godwin remained an earl throughout the remainder of Cnuts reign, one of two earls to survive to the end of that reign. Harthacnuts death in 1042 probably involved Godwin in a role as kingmaker, in 1045 Godwin reached the height of his power when the new king married Godwins daughter Edith. Godwin and Gytha had several children – six sons, Sweyn, Harold, Tostig, Gyrth, Leofwine and Wulfnoth, the birthdates of the children are unknown, but Sweyn was the eldest and Harold was the second son. Harold was aged about 25 in 1045, which makes his birth year around 1020, Edith married Edward on 23 January 1045 and, around that time, Harold became Earl of East Anglia. Harold is called earl when he appears as a witness in a will that may date to 1044, one reason for his appointment to East Anglia may have been a need to defend against the threat from King Magnus the Good of Norway. It is possible that Harold led some of the ships from his earldom that were sent to Sandwich in 1045 against Magnus, Sweyn, Harolds elder brother, had been named an earl in 1043. The relationship was a form of marriage that was not blessed or sanctioned by the Church, known as more Danico, or in the Danish manner, any children of such a union were considered legitimate. Harold probably entered the relationship in part to support in his new earldom. Harolds elder brother Sweyn was exiled in 1047 after abducting the abbess of Leominster, sweyns lands were divided between Harold and a cousin, Beorn. In 1049, Harold was in command of a ship or ships that were sent with a fleet to aid the German Emperor Henry III against Baldwin V, Count of Flanders, who was in revolt against Henry

5.
William I of England
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William I, usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman King of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. A descendant of Rollo, he was Duke of Normandy from 1035 onward, after a long struggle to establish his power, by 1060 his hold on Normandy was secure, and he launched the Norman conquest of England six years later. The rest of his life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England and his continental lands, William was the son of the unmarried Robert I, Duke of Normandy, by Roberts mistress Herleva. His illegitimate status and his youth caused some difficulties for him after he succeeded his father, during his childhood and adolescence, members of the Norman aristocracy battled each other, both for control of the child duke and for their own ends. In 1047 William was able to quash a rebellion and begin to establish his authority over the duchy and his marriage in the 1050s to Matilda of Flanders provided him with a powerful ally in the neighbouring county of Flanders. By the time of his marriage, William was able to arrange the appointments of his supporters as bishops and his consolidation of power allowed him to expand his horizons, and by 1062 William was able to secure control of the neighbouring county of Maine. In the 1050s and early 1060s William became a contender for the throne of England, then held by the childless Edward the Confessor, his first cousin once removed. There were other claimants, including the powerful English earl Harold Godwinson. William argued that Edward had previously promised the throne to him, William built a large fleet and invaded England in September 1066, decisively defeating and killing Harold at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066. After further military efforts William was crowned king on Christmas Day 1066 and he made arrangements for the governance of England in early 1067 before returning to Normandy. Several unsuccessful rebellions followed, but by 1075 Williams hold on England was mostly secure, Williams final years were marked by difficulties in his continental domains, troubles with his eldest son, and threatened invasions of England by the Danes. In 1086 William ordered the compilation of the Domesday Book, a listing all the landholders in England along with their holdings. William died in September 1087 while leading a campaign in northern France and his reign in England was marked by the construction of castles, the settling of a new Norman nobility on the land, and change in the composition of the English clergy. He did not try to integrate his various domains into one empire, Williams lands were divided after his death, Normandy went to his eldest son, Robert Curthose, and his second surviving son, William Rufus, received England. Norsemen first began raiding in what became Normandy in the late 8th century, permanent Scandinavian settlement occurred before 911, when Rollo, one of the Viking leaders, and King Charles the Simple of France reached an agreement surrendering the county of Rouen to Rollo. The lands around Rouen became the core of the duchy of Normandy. Normandy may have used as a base when Scandinavian attacks on England were renewed at the end of the 10th century. In an effort to improve matters, King Æthelred the Unready took Emma of Normandy, sister of Duke Richard II, as his second wife in 1002

6.
Waltham Abbey (abbey)
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The Abbey Church of Waltham Holy Cross and St Lawrence is the parish church of the town of Waltham Abbey, Essex, England. It has been a place of worship since the 7th century, the present building dates mainly from the early 12th century and is an example of Norman architecture. To the east of the church are traces of an enormous eastward enlargement of the building. It is still a parish church for the town. The monastic buildings and those parts of the church east of the crossing were demolished at the dissolution, the present-day church consists of the nave of the Norman abbey church, the 14th-century lady chapel and west wall, and a 16th-century west tower, added after the dissolution. Harold Godwinson is said to be buried in the present churchyard, archaeological investigations between 1984 and 1991 have revealed a much earlier origin of the site than had previously been believed. There is evidence for five distinct churches at Waltham, traces of the flint rubble foundations of a 7th-century wooden church have been found under the choir of the present building, an associated burial has been radiocarbon dated to between 590 and 690. A proposed date of circa 610 would place its construction in the reign of Sæberht of Essex, other finds included a 7th-century Kentish jewellery book-clasp depicting eagles grasping a fish. During the reign of King Offa of Mercia, whose rule extended to Essex in the late 8th century and it was half the length of the present building, and was a porticus-type church with chambers along each side of the nave. It was intended as a minster serving several communities in the area, at the beginning of the 11th century, the church and manor of Waltham were held by an Anglo-Danish Thegn called Tovi the Proud. Tovi had the cross loaded onto an ox-cart, but the oxen would only go in one direction and continued every day until they reached Waltham and this Holy Rood or Cross was installed at the church and soon became the subject of pilgrimage. Tovi is said to have rebuilt the church, but modern evidence suggests that he retained the 8th century fabric of the building. After Tovis death, his son fell into debt and the passed to King Edward the Confessor. The new church was placed under the control of a dean, starting in about 1090, Harolds building was demolished and a new church with crossing tower and transepts was begun in the Norman style. It reused the Saxon foundations and some of the stonework, with stone from Reigate, Kent. The church was cruciform, with a tower at the crossing, the nave had typically massive Norman pillars with incised decoration and semi-circular arches supporting a triforium and clerestorey above. A long eastern chapel may have housed the Holy Cross, the rebuilding, which had started at the eastern end, was completed by about 1150. This construction is mainly the fabric that has survived to the present, in 1177, the abbey was re-founded once more, this time as an Augustinian priory with 16 canons, by Henry II as part of his penance for the murder of Thomas Becket

7.
Westminster Abbey
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It is one of the United Kingdoms most notable religious buildings and the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English and, later, British monarchs. Between 1540 and 1556, the abbey had the status of a cathedral, since 1560, however, the building is no longer an abbey nor a cathedral, having instead the status of a Church of England Royal Peculiar—a church responsible directly to the sovereign. The building itself is the abbey church. According to a tradition first reported by Sulcard in about 1080, a church was founded at the site in the 7th century, at the time of Mellitus, construction of the present church began in 1245, on the orders of King Henry III. Since the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066, all coronations of English and British monarchs have held in Westminster Abbey. There have been at least 16 royal weddings at the abbey since 1100, two were of reigning monarchs, although, before 1919, there had been none for some 500 years. The first reports of the abbey are based on a tradition claiming that a young fisherman called Aldrich on the River Thames saw a vision of Saint Peter near the site. This seems to be quoted to justify the gifts of salmon from Thames fishermen that the abbey received in later years, in the present was, the Fishmongers Company still gives a salmon every year. The proven origins are that in the 960s or early 970s, Saint Dunstan, assisted by King Edgar, between 1042 and 1052, King Edward the Confessor began rebuilding St Peters Abbey to provide himself with a royal burial church. It was the first church in England built in the Romanesque style, the building was completed around 1090 and was consecrated on 28 December 1065, only a week before Edwards death on 5 January 1066. A week later, he was buried in the church, and, nine years later and his successor, Harold II, was probably crowned in the abbey, although the first documented coronation is that of William the Conqueror later the same year. The only extant depiction of Edwards abbey, together with the adjacent Palace of Westminster, is in the Bayeux Tapestry, construction of the present church was begun in 1245 by Henry III who selected the site for his burial. The abbot and monks, in proximity to the royal Palace of Westminster, the abbot often was employed on royal service and in due course took his place in the House of Lords as of right. The abbey built shops and dwellings on the west side, encroaching upon the sanctuary, the abbey became the coronation site of Norman kings. The Confessors shrine subsequently played a part in his canonisation. The work continued between 1245 and 1517 and was finished by the architect Henry Yevele in the reign of Richard II. Henry III also commissioned the unique Cosmati pavement in front of the High Altar, Henry VII added a Perpendicular style chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1503. Much of the came from Caen, in France, the Isle of Portland

8.
Malcolm III of Scotland
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Malcolm was King of Scots from 1058 to 1093. Malcolms long reign of 35 years preceded the beginning of the Scoto-Norman age and he is the historical equivalent of the character of the same name in William Shakespeares Macbeth. Malcolm III fought a series of wars against the Kingdom of England and these wars did not result in any significant advances southward. Malcolms second wife, St. Margaret of Scotland, is Scotlands only royal saint, Malcolm himself had no reputation for piety, with the notable exception of Dunfermline Abbey in Fife he is not definitely associated with major religious establishments or ecclesiastical reforms. Malcolms father Duncan I became king in late 1034, on the death of Malcolm II, Duncans maternal grandfather, Duncans reign was not successful and he was killed by Macbeth on 15 August 1040. Although Shakespeares Macbeth presents Malcolm as a man and his father as an old one, it appears that Duncan was still young in 1040. Malcolms family did attempt to overthrow Macbeth in 1045, but Malcolms grandfather Crínán of Dunkeld was killed in the attempt, soon after the death of Duncan his two young sons were sent away for greater safety—exactly where is the subject of debate. According to one version, Malcolm was sent to England, based on Forduns account, it was assumed that Malcolm passed most of Macbeths seventeen-year reign in the Kingdom of England at the court of Edward the Confessor. An English invasion in 1054, with Siward, Earl of Northumbria in command, had as its goal the installation of one Máel Coluim and this Máel Coluim has traditionally been identified with the later Malcolm III. This interpretation derives from the Chronicle attributed to the 14th-century chronicler of Scotland, John of Fordun, the latter reported that Macbeth was killed in the battle by Siward, but it is known that Macbeth outlived Siward by two years. A. A. M. Duncan argued in 2002 that, using the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry as their source, Duncans argument has been supported by several subsequent historians specialising in the era, such as Richard Oram, Dauvit Broun and Alex Woolf. It has also suggested that Máel Coluim may have been a son of Owain Foel, British king of Strathclyde perhaps by a daughter of Malcolm II. In 1057 various chroniclers report the death of Macbeth at Malcolms hand, Macbeth was succeeded by his stepson Lulach, who was crowned at Scone, probably on 8 September 1057. Lulach was killed by Malcolm, by treachery, near Huntly on 23 April 1058, after this, Malcolm became king, perhaps being inaugurated on 25 April 1058, although only John of Fordun reports this. If he did visit the English court, he was the first reigning king of Scots to do so in more than eighty years. If a marriage agreement was made in 1059, it was not kept, equally, Malcolms raids in Northumbria may have been related to the disputed Kingdom of the Cumbrians, reestablished by Earl Siward in 1054, which was under Malcolms control by 1070. The Orkneyinga saga reports that Malcolm married the widow of Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Ingibiorg, although Ingibiorg is generally assumed to have died shortly before 1070, it is possible that she died much earlier, around 1058. The Orkneyinga Saga records that Malcolm and Ingibiorg had a son, Duncan II, Malcolms son Domnall, whose death is reported in 1085, is not mentioned by the author of the Orkneyinga Saga

9.
Northumbria
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The Kingdom of Northumbria was a medieval Anglian kingdom in what is now northern England and south-east Scotland, which subsequently became an earldom in a unified English kingdom. The name reflects the southern limit to the kingdoms territory. Northumbria was formed by Æthelfrith in central Great Britain in Anglo-Saxon times, at the beginning of the 7th century, the two kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira were unified. At its height, the kingdom extended at least from just south of the Humber to the River Mersey, the later earldom came about when the southern part of Northumbria was lost to the Danelaw. The earldom was bounded by the River Tees in the south, much of this land was debated between England and Scotland, but the Earldom of Northumbria was eventually recognised as part of England by the Anglo-Scottish Treaty of York in 1237. On the northern border, Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is north of the Tweed but had changed many times, was defined as subject to the laws of England by the Wales. The local Environment Agency office, located in Newcastle Business Park, otherwise, the term is not the official name for the UK and EU region of North East England. See also, List of monarchs of Northumbria and Timeline of Northumbria Northumbria was originally formed from the union of two independent kingdoms, Bernicia and Deira, Bernicia covered lands north of the Tees, while Deira corresponded roughly to modern-day Yorkshire. Bernicia and Deira were first united by Aethelfrith, a king of Bernicia who conquered Deira around the year 604. He was defeated and killed around the year 616 in battle at the River Idle by Raedwald of East Anglia, who installed Edwin, the son of Ælla, a former king of Deira, as king. Edwin, who accepted Christianity in 627, soon grew to become the most powerful king in England, he was recognised as Bretwalda and conquered the Isle of Man and Gwynedd in northern Wales. He was, however, himself defeated by an alliance of the king of Gwynedd, Cadwallon ap Cadfan. After Edwins death, Northumbria was split between Bernicia, where Eanfrith, a son of Aethelfrith, took power, and Deira, cumbria tended to remain a country frontier with the Britons. Both of these rulers were killed during the year that followed, after the murder of Eanfrith, his brother, Oswald, backed by warriors sent by Domnall Brecc of Dál Riata, defeated and killed Cadwallon at the Battle of Heavenfield in 634. He incorporated Gododdin lands northwards up to the Firth of Forth and also extended his reach westward, encroaching on the remaining Cumbric speaking kingdoms of Rheged. Thus, Northumbria became not only part of modern Englands far north, King Oswald re-introduced Christianity to the Kingdom by appointing St. Aidan, an Irish monk from the Scottish island of Iona to convert his people. This led to the introduction of the practices of Celtic Christianity, a monastery was established on Lindisfarne. In 642, Oswald was killed by the Mercians under Penda at the Battle of Maserfield and this battle marked a major turning point in Northumbrian fortunes, Penda died in the battle, and Oswiu gained supremacy over Mercia, making himself the most powerful king in England

10.
Mercia
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Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. The name is a Latinisation of the Old English Mierce or Myrce, the kingdom was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries, in the region now known as the English Midlands. The kingdoms capital was the town of Tamworth, which was the seat of the Mercian Kings from at least around AD584, when King Creoda built a fortress at the town. The reign of King Offa, who is best remembered for his Dyke that designated the boundary between Mercia and the Welsh kingdoms, is known as the Golden Age of Mercia. Mercia was originally a pagan kingdom, but King Peada converted to Christianity around 656, the Diocese of Mercia was founded in 656, with the first bishop, Diuma, based at Repton. After only 13 years at Repton, in 669 the fifth bishop, Saint Chad, moved the bishopric to Lichfield, in 691, the Diocese of Mercia became the Diocese of Lichfield. For a brief period between 787 and 799 the diocese was an archbishopric, although it was dissolved in 803. The current bishop, Michael Ipgrave, is the 99th since the diocese was established, at the end of the 9th century, following the invasions of the Vikings and their Great Heathen Army, much of the former Mercian territory was absorbed into the Danelaw. At its height, the Danelaw included London, all of East Anglia, the final Mercian king, Ceolwulf II, died in 879, the kingdom appears to have thereby lost its political independence. Initially, it was ruled by a lord or ealdorman under the overlordship of Alfred the Great, Mercia is still used as a geographic designation, and the name is used by wide range of organisations, including military units, public, commercial and voluntary bodies. Mercias exact evolution at the start of the Anglo-Saxon era remains more obscure than that of Northumbria, Kent, Mercia developed an effective political structure and adopted Christianity later than the other kingdoms. Archaeological surveys show that Angles settled the north of the River Thames by the 6th century. The name Mercia is Old English for boundary folk, and the interpretation is that the kingdom originated along the frontier between the native Welsh and the Anglo-Saxon invaders. Hunter Blair argued an alternative interpretation, that emerged along the frontier between Northumbria and the inhabitants of the Trent river valley. The earliest person named in any records as a king of Mercia is Creoda, coming to power around 584, he built a fortress at Tamworth which became the seat of Mercias kings. His son Pybba succeeded him in 593, Cearl, a kinsman of Creoda, followed Pybba in 606, in 615, Cearl gave his daughter Cwenburga in marriage to Edwin, king of Deira, whom he had sheltered while he was an exiled prince. The next Mercian king, Penda, ruled from about 626 or 633 until 655, some of what is known about Penda comes from the hostile account of Bede, who disliked him – both as an enemy to Bedes own Northumbria and as a pagan. However, Bede admits that Penda freely allowed Christian missionaries from Lindisfarne into Mercia, and did not restrain them from preaching

11.
Bishop of Worcester
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The Bishop of Worcester is the head of the Church of England Diocese of Worcester in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title can be traced back to the foundation of the diocese in the year 680, from then until the 16th century, the bishops were in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. During the Reformation, the church in England broke away from the authority of the Pope, since the Reformation, the Bishop and Diocese of Worcester has been part of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion. The diocese covers most of the county of Worcestershire, the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, the Episcopal see is in the city of Worcester where the bishops throne is located at the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The bishops official residence is the Bishops Office, The Old Palace, Deansway, Worcester, the bishops had two residences outside the city, Hartlebury Castle near Kidderminster from the 13th century to 2007 and a palace at Alvechurch until it was pulled down in the 17th century. From the elevations of Saint Oswald of Worcester in 961 at Worcester and 972 at York, the current Bishop of Worcester is the Right Reverend John Inge, who signs + John Wigorn

12.
Earl of Wessex
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Earl of Wessex is a title that has been created three times in British history, twice in the pre-Conquest Anglo-Saxon nobility of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The region of Wessex, in the south and southwest of England, had one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Wessex was one of the four earldoms of Anglo-Danish England, in this period, the earldom of Wessex covered the lands of the old kingdom of Wessex, covering the counties of the south of England, and extending west to the Welsh border. During the reign of King Cnut, the earldom was conferred on Godwin at some time after 1020, thereafter, Godwin rose to become, in King Edwards time, the most powerful man in the kingdom. Upon Godwins death in 1053, the passed to his son. Following the Norman conquest in the winter of 1066, King William bestowed the earldom on William FitzOsbern, FitzOsbern continued to help William consolidate his new realm until his death in Flanders in 1071. Following this, the earldom was reduced in power and regional jurisdiction, instead, the Palace announced that Prince Edward would eventually succeed to the title of Duke of Edinburgh, currently held by his father. His wife Sophie became The Countess of Wessex, the current Earl of Wessex is also Viscount Severn. This subsidiary title is used as a title by the Earls son. The family seat is Bagshot Park, near Bagshot, Surrey, the heir apparent is the present holders son James, Viscount Severn. The Earls son is currently the only person in the line of succession to the titles of Earl of Wessex, david Crouch, The Normans ISBN 1-85285-387-5 Emma Mason The House of Godwine ISBN 1-85285-389-1

13.
Wales
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Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, and it had a population in 2011 of 3,063,456 and has a total area of 20,779 km2. Wales has over 1,680 miles of coastline and is mountainous, with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon. The country lies within the temperate zone and has a changeable. Welsh national identity emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudds death in 1282 marked the completion of Edward I of Englands conquest of Wales, though Owain Glyndŵr briefly restored independence to Wales in the early 15th century. The whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh Liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by Lloyd George, was displaced by the growth of socialism, Welsh national feeling grew over the century, Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and the Welsh Language Society in 1962. Established under the Government of Wales Act 1998, the National Assembly for Wales holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, two-thirds of the population live in south Wales, mainly in and around Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, and in the nearby valleys. Now that the countrys traditional extractive and heavy industries have gone or are in decline, Wales economy depends on the sector, light and service industries. Wales 2010 gross value added was £45.5 billion, over 560,000 Welsh language speakers live in Wales, and the language is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west. From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its popular image as the land of song, Rugby union is seen as a symbol of Welsh identity and an expression of national consciousness. The Old English-speaking Anglo-Saxons came to use the term Wælisc when referring to the Celtic Britons in particular, the modern names for some Continental European lands and peoples have a similar etymology. The modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry, and Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales and these words are descended from the Brythonic word combrogi, meaning fellow-countrymen. The use of the word Cymry as a self-designation derives from the location in the post-Roman Era of the Welsh people in modern Wales as well as in northern England and southern Scotland. It emphasised that the Welsh in modern Wales and in the Hen Ogledd were one people, in particular, the term was not applied to the Cornish or the Breton peoples, who are of similar heritage, culture, and language to the Welsh. The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century and it is attested in a praise poem to Cadwallon ap Cadfan c. 633. Thereafter Cymry prevailed as a reference to the Welsh, until c.1560 the word was spelt Kymry or Cymry, regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland. The Latinised forms of names, Cambrian, Cambric and Cambria, survive as lesser-used alternative names for Wales, Welsh

14.
Gwynedd
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Gwynedd is an area in north-west Wales, named after the old Kingdom of Gwynedd. As a local government area, it is the second biggest in Wales in terms of geographical area, a majority of the population are Welsh-speaking. The name Gwynedd is also used for a county, covering the two local government areas of Gwynedd and the Isle of Anglesey. Culturally and historically, the name can also be used for most of North Wales, the current area is 2,548 square km with a population as measured in the 2011 Census of 121,874. Gwynedd is the home of Bangor University and includes the scenic Llŷn Peninsula, the largest settlements are Bangor, Caernarfon, Bethesda and Ffestiniog. The largest settlement in the south is Tywyn, in the past, historians such as J. E. Lloyd assumed that the Celtic source of the word Gwynedd meant collection of tribes - the same root as the Irish fine, meaning tribe. Perhaps *u̯en-, u̯enə is the Indo-European stem, the Irish settled in NW Wales, and in Dyfed, at the end of the Roman era. Venedotia was the Latin form, and in Penmachno there is a stone from c. AD500 which reads, Cantiori Hic Iacit Venedotis, the name was retained by the Brythons when the kingdom of Gwynedd was formed in the 5th century, and it remained until the invasion of Edward I. This historical name was revived when the new county was formed in 1974, Gwynedd was an independent kingdom from the end of the Roman period until the 13th century, when it was conquered by England. The modern Gwynedd was one of eight Welsh counties created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, the county was divided into five districts, Aberconwy, Arfon, Dwyfor, Meirionnydd and Anglesey. The remainder of the county was constituted as an area, with the name Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire. As one of its first actions, the Council renamed itself Gwynedd on 2 April 1996, the present Gwynedd local government area is governed by Gwynedd Council. As a unitary authority, the modern entity no longer has any districts, the pre-1996 boundaries were retained as a preserved county for a few purposes such as the Lieutenancy. A Gwynedd Constabulary was formed in 1950 by the merger of the Anglesey, a further amalgamation took place in the 1960s when Gwynedd Constabulary was merged with the Flintshire and Denbighshire county forces, retaining the name Gwynedd. To prevent confusion, the Gwynedd Constabulary was therefore renamed the North Wales Police, the Snowdonia National Park was formed in 1951. After the 1974 local authority reorganisation, the park entirely within the boundaries of Gwynedd. After the 1996 local government reorganisation, part of the park fell under Conwy County Borough, the county has a mixed economy

15.
Gruffydd ap Llywelyn
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Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was the King of Wales from 1055 to 1063. He was the son of King Llywelyn ap Seisyll, although the true lineage of his grandfather Seisyll is obscure, he claimed to be the great-great-grandson of Hywel Dda. Gruffydd was the son of Llywelyn ap Seisyll, who had been able to rule both Gwynedd and Powys, on Llywelyns death in 1023, a member of the Aberffraw dynasty, Iago ab Idwal ap Meurig, became ruler of Gwynedd and began his rise to power in Powys. In 1039, King Iago of Gwynedd was killed and his son Cynan, Gruffydd, who had already recovered Powys, expanded into the vacuum. Soon after gaining power, he surprised a Mercian army at Rhyd y Groes near Welshpool and totally defeated it, killing Edwin, brother of the Leofric and he then attacked Dyfed, which his father had ruled but was now under Hywel ab Edwin. Gruffydd defeated Hywel in the Battle of Pencader and carried off Hywels wife. Gruffydd seems to have been able to drive Hywel out of the south, Gruffydd, however, defeated and killed him in a closely fought engagement. He was able to resist several attacks by Gruffydd ap Llywelyn in the following years, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was active on the Welsh border in 1052, when he attacked Herefordshire and defeated a mixed force of Normans and English in the Battle of Leominster. In 1055 Gruffydd ap Llywelyn killed his rival Gruffydd ap Rhydderch in battle, Gruffydd allied himself with Ælfgar, son of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, who had been deprived of his earldom of East Anglia by Harold Godwinson and his brothers. They marched on Hereford and were opposed by a led by the Earl of Hereford. This force was mounted and armed in the Norman fashion, and he then sacked the city and destroyed its motte-and-bailey castle. Earl Harold was given the task of counter-attacking, and seems to have built a fortification at Longtown in Herefordshire before refortifying Hereford, shortly afterwards Ælfgar was restored to his earldom and a peace treaty concluded. Around this time Gruffydd was also able to seize Morgannwg and Gwent, in 1056, he won another victory over an English army near Glasbury. Now recognized as King of Wales, he claimed sovereignty over the whole of the country – a claim which was recognised by the English, historian John Davies stated that Gruffydd was the only Welsh king ever to rule over the entire territory of Wales. Thus, from about 1057 until his death in 1063, the whole of Wales recognised the kingship of Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, for about seven brief years, Wales was one, under one ruler, a feat with neither precedent nor successor. Gruffydd reached an agreement with Edward the Confessor, but the death of his ally Ælfgar in 1062 left him more vulnerable, in late 1062 Harold Godwinson obtained the kings approval for a surprise attack on Gruffydds court at Rhuddlan. Gruffydd was nearly captured, but was warned in time to escape out to sea in one of his ships, though his other ships were destroyed. In the spring of 1063 Harolds brother Tostig led an army into north Wales while Harold led the fleet first to south Wales, Gruffydd was forced to take refuge in Snowdonia where he met his death

16.
Normandy
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Normandy is one of the regions of France, roughly corresponding to the historical Duchy of Normandy. Administratively, Normandy is divided into five departments, Calvados, Eure, Manche, Orne and it covers 30,627 km², forming roughly 5% of the territory of France. Its population of 3.37 million accounts for around 5% of the population of France, Normans is the name given to the inhabitants of Normandy, and the region is the homeland of the Norman language. The historical region of Normandy comprised the region of Normandy, as well as small areas now part of the départements, or departments of Mayenne. For a century and a following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, Normandy and England were linked by Norman. Archaeological finds, such as paintings, prove that humans were present in the region in prehistoric times. Celts invaded Normandy in successive waves from the 4th to the 3rd century BC, when Julius Caesar invaded Gaul, there were nine different Celtic tribes living in Normandy. The Romanisation of Normandy was achieved by the methods, Roman roads. Classicists have knowledge of many Gallo-Roman villas in Normandy, in the late 3rd century, barbarian raids devastated Normandy. Coastal settlements were raided by Saxon pirates, Christianity also began to enter the area during this period. In 406, Germanic tribes began invading from the east, while the Saxons subjugated the Norman coast, the Roman Emperor withdrew from most of Normandy. As early as 487, the area between the River Somme and the River Loire came under the control of the Frankish lord Clovis, the Vikings started to raid the Seine Valley during the middle of the 9th century. As early as 841, a Viking fleet appeared at the mouth of the Seine, after attacking and destroying monasteries, including one at Jumièges, they took advantage of the power vacuum created by the disintegration of Charlemagnes empire to take northern France. The fiefdom of Normandy was created for the Norwegian Viking leader Hrólfr Ragnvaldsson, Rollo had besieged Paris but in 911 entered vassalage to the king of the West Franks, Charles the Simple, through the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. In exchange for his homage and fealty, Rollo legally gained the territory which he, the name Normandy reflects Rollos Viking origins. The descendants of Rollo and his followers adopted the local Gallo-Romance language and they became the Normans – a Norman-speaking mixture of Saxons and indigenous Franks and Celts. Besides the Norman conquest of England and the subsequent conquests of Wales and Ireland, Norman families, such as that of Tancred of Hauteville, Rainulf Drengot and Guimond de Moulins played important parts in the Norman conquest of southern Italy and Crusades. They also carved out a place for themselves and their descendants in the Crusader states of Asia Minor, the 14th century Norman explorer Jean de Béthencourt established a kingdom in the Canary Islands

17.
Guy I of Ponthieu
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Guy I of Ponthieu was born sometime in the mid to late 1020s and died 13 October 1100. He succeeded his brother Enguerrand as Count of Ponthieu, Guy was a younger son of Hugh II, Count of Ponthieu and about 1053 succeeded his brother Enguerrand II, as Count of Ponthieu. The Ponthievin alliance with Duke William of Normandy had earlier been secured by the marriage of Enguerrand to Adelaide of Normandy, but the marriage was apparently annulled due to consanguinity c. 1149/50. Enguerrands and Guys sister was married to William of Talou, son of Richard II, William of Talou had built a strong castle at Arques, and from it he defied his nephew the youthful Duke of Normandy. As family, the house of Ponthieu supported the rebellion. Duke William put Arques under siege, and then remained mobile with another force in the countryside nearby, young Count Enguerrand led a Ponthievin army into the Talou to relieve Arques, and arrived first, but Duke William successfully ambushed them and Enguerrand was killed. Upon learning of this reverse, the vacillating Henry withdrew his forces at once back across the Norman border. William of Talou was compelled to surrender Arques and was banished for life, with the death of his older brother, Guy assumed the comital duties, this is the first mention of Guy in the historical record. In February 1054, Henry was again ready to chastise Duke William, he reentered the duchy with an army of his own liegemen. This combined force moved down the Seine toward Rouen, while Henrys brother Eudes led an army, along with Guy. The Franco-Ponthievin army was undisciplined, and fragmented out of control to plunder and they were attacked suddenly by Normans from Eu and other districts of northeastern Normandy. In the Battle of Mortemer, Guys younger brother Waleran was mortally wounded and he spent two years as a prisoner in Normandy, while his uncle, Bishop Guy of Amiens, ruled Ponthieu as regent. Evidently, from this point on, Count Guy was a vassal of Duke William of Normandy, Duke William demanded the release of the earl, and Count Guy delivered Harold Godwinson up after being paid a ransom for him. Harold was not released from Normandy until he too had sworn on the Holy Relics to be Duke Williams vassal, in 1066, Harold accepted the crown of England upon the death of Edward the Confessor, thus precipitating the war that resulted in the Norman Conquest. According to a convincing interpretation of The Carmen de Hastingae Proelio, Hugh, another of Guys brothers, was a participant in the Battle of Hastings. His daughter, Agnes, married Robert of Bellême and their son, William III of Ponthieu, assumed the comital title upon the death of his mother, sometime before 1111. Guy was portrayed by Bernard Hepton in the two-part BBC TV play Conquest, the Carmen de Hastingae Proelio of Guy, Bishop of Amiens. The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni

18.
Homage (medieval)
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Homage in the Middle Ages was the ceremony in which a feudal tenant or vassal pledged reverence and submission to his feudal lord, receiving in exchange the symbolic title to his new position. It was an acknowledgement to the lord that the vassal was, literally. The oath known as fealty implied lesser obligations than did homage, a similar concept is the bayah, a type of oath in Islam. There have been some conflicts about obligations of homage in history, for example, the Angevin monarchs of England were sovereign in England, i. e. they had no duty of homage regarding those holdings, but they were not sovereign regarding their French holdings. So Henry II was king of England, but he was merely Duke of the Normans and Angevins, the Capetian kings in Paris, though weak militarily, claimed a right of homage. The usual oath was therefore modified by Henry to add the qualification for the lands I hold overseas, the implication was that no knights service was owed for the conquered English lands. After King John was forced to surrender Normandy to France in 1204, John still expected to recover his ancestral lands, and those English lords who held lands in Normandy would have to choose sides. Many were forced to abandon their continental holdings, at first that seemed to satisfy John, but eventually, as a price for making peace with the French king to keep his lands, the Earl Marshall fell out of favour with John. The conflict between the French monarchs and the Angevin kings of England continued through the 13th century, when Edward I was asked to provide military service to Philip III in his war with Aragon in 1285, Edward made preparations to provide service from Gascony. A truce was arranged, however, before Edward had to decide what to do, but when Phillip III died, and his son Philip IV ascended the French throne in 1286, Edward dutifully but reluctantly performed homage for the sake of peace. In doing so, Edward added yet another qualification – that the duty owed was according to the terms of the peace made between our ancestors, allegiance Bayah Charge Duty Fealty Feudalism in the Holy Roman Empire Honor

19.
Brittany
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Brittany is a cultural region in the north-west of France. Brittany has also referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain. It is bordered by the English Channel to the north, the Celtic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and its land area is 34,023 km². Since reorganisation in 1956, the administrative region of Brittany comprises only four of the five Breton departments. The remaining area of old Brittany, the Loire-Atlantique department around Nantes, at the 2010 census, the population of historic Brittany was estimated to be 4,475,295. Of these, 71% lived in the region of Brittany, while 29% lived in the Loire-Atlantique department, in 2012, the largest metropolitan areas were Nantes, Rennes, and Brest. Brittany is the homeland of the Breton people and is recognised by the Celtic League as one of the six Celtic nations. A nationalist movement seeks greater autonomy within the French Republic, the word Brittany, along with its French, Breton and Gallo equivalents Bretagne, Breizh and Bertaèyn, derive from the Latin Britannia, which means Britons land. This word had been used by the Romans since the 1st century to refer to Great Britain and this word derives from a Greek word, Πρεττανικη or Βρεττανίαι, used by Pytheas, an explorer from Massalia who visited the British Islands around 320 BC. This term probably comes from a Gallic word, aremorica, which close to the sea. Another name, Letauia, was used until the 12th century and it possibly means wide and flat or to expand and it gave the Welsh name for Brittany, Llydaw. Later, authors like Geoffrey of Monmouth used the terms Britannia minor, breton-speaking people may pronounce the word Breizh in two different ways, according to their region of origin. Breton can be divided into two dialects, the KLT and the dialect of Vannes. KLT speakers pronounce it and would write it Breiz, while the Vannetais speakers pronounce it, the official spelling is a compromise between both variants, with a z and an h together. In 1941, efforts to unify the dialects led to the creation of the so-called Breton zh, on its side, Gallo language has never had a widely accepted writing system and several ones coexist. For instance, the name of the region in that language can be written Bertaèyn in ELG script, or Bertègn in MOGA, Brittany has been inhabited by humans since the Lower Paleolithic. This population was scarce and very similar to the other Neanderthals found in the whole of Western Europe and their only original feature was a distinct culture, called Colombanian. One of the oldest hearths in the world has found in Plouhinec

20.
York
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York is a historic walled city at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The municipality is the county town of Yorkshire to which it gives its name. The city has a heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events in England throughout much of its two millennia of existence. The city offers a wealth of attractions, of which York Minster is the most prominent. The city was founded by the Romans as Eboracum in 71 AD and it became the capital of the Roman province of Britannia Inferior, and later of the kingdoms of Northumbria and Jórvík. In the Middle Ages, York grew as a wool trading centre and became the capital of the northern ecclesiastical province of the Church of England. In the 19th century, York became a hub of the railway network, in recent decades, the economy of York has moved from being dominated by its confectionery and railway-related industries to one that provides services. The University of York and health services have become major employers, from 1996, the term City of York describes a unitary authority area which includes rural areas beyond the old city boundaries. In 2011 the urban area had a population of 153,717, the word York derives from the Latinised name for the city, variously rendered as Eboracum, Eburacum or Eburaci. The first mention of York by this name is dated to circa 95–104 AD as an address on a wooden stylus tablet from the Roman fortress of Vindolanda in Northumberland, the toponymy of Eboracum is uncertain because the language of the pre-Roman indigenous population was never recorded. They are thought to have spoken a Celtic language related to modern Welsh, in his Historia Regum Britanniae the 12th century chronicler, Geoffrey of Monmouth, suggests the name derives from that of a pre-Roman city founded by the legendary king Ebraucus. Alternatively, the word already existed as an Old English word for wild swine. The Anglo-Saxon newcomers probably interpreted the part as eofor, and -rac as ric, while -um was a common abbreviation of the Saxon -heem. To them, it sounded as a home rich in boar, as is common in Saxon place names, the -um part gradually faded, eoforic. When the Danish army conquered the city in 866, its name became Jórvík, the Old French and Norman name of the city following the Norman Conquest was recorded as Everwic in works such as Waces Roman de Rou. The form York was first recorded in the 13th century, many company and place names, such as the Ebor race meeting, refer to the Roman name. The Archbishop of York uses Ebor as his surname in his signature, archaeological evidence suggests that Mesolithic people settled in the region of York between 8000 and 7000 BC, although it is not known whether their settlements were permanent or temporary. By the time of the Roman conquest of Britain, the area was occupied by a known to the Romans as the Brigantes

21.
Wilton Abbey
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Wilton Abbey was a Benedictine convent in Wiltshire, England, three miles from Salisbury on the site now occupied by Wilton House. Owing to the consent given by this king he is counted as the first founder of this monastery, Saint Alburga herself joined the community, and died at Wilton. King Alfred, after his success against the Danes at Wilton in 871, founded a new convent on the site of the royal palace. The community was to number 26 nuns and it was attached to St Marys Church. Two daughters of king Edward the Elder and Ælfflæd, Eadflæd and Æthelhild, probably joined the community, Eadflæd as a nun and they were buried at Wilton with their mother. Their half-brother, king Æthelstan, made two grants of land to a congregation at Wilton in the 930s, including one in 937 for the remission of his sins and those of Eadflæd. In 955 King Eadwig granted the nuns of Wilton Abbey an estate called Chelke which included land in Broad Chalke and Bowerchalke, Wulfthryth, the wife of Edgar, King of the English, was abbess of Wilton between the early 960s and about 1000. She brought with her their daughter, Saint Edith, and this must have occurred before 964, Wulfthryth brought with her substantial properties, and used her wealth to build up Wiltons relic collection. She was also able to use her connections to protect Wilton in other ways. Her daughter died between 984 and 987 at the age of 23, and her mother promoted her cult as a saint, in 1003 Sweyn, King of Denmark, destroyed the town of Wilton but we do not know whether the abbey shared its fate. Edith of Wessex, the wife of Edward the Confessor, who had educated at Wilton, rebuilt the abbey in stone. In 1143 King Stephen made it his headquarters, but was put to flight by Matildas forces under Robert, Earl of Gloucester. The Abbess of Wilton held a barony from the king. Cecily Bodenham, the last abbess, surrendered the convent to the commissioners of King Henry VIII on 25 March 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The site was granted to Sir William Herbert, afterwards Earl of Pembroke, there are no remains of the ancient buildings. Saint Iwig, whose Feast Day is October 8th, Edith of Wilton Saint Wulfthryth, mother of St. Edith of Wilton, her Feast Day is 13 September. Ælfflæd, Eadflæd and Æthelhild This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles

22.
Witenagemot
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The Witenaġemot, also known as the Witan was a political institution in Anglo-Saxon England which operated from before the 7th century until the 11th century. The institution is thought to represent a development of the ancient Germanic general assemblies. The terms Witan and Witenagemot are increasingly avoided by historians, although few would go as far as Geoffrey Hindley. The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England prefers Kings Council, but adds that it was known in Old English as the witan, for these reasons, in his study of the origins of the English parliament, he generally preferred the more neutral word assembly. He described witena gemot as an eleventh century usage, with only nine pre-Conquest examples. Patrick Wormald was also sceptical, describing witena-gemot as a word always rare, despite historians best efforts to find in it some permanence of character, the exact nature of the witenagemot remains essentially vague, fluctuating, and incoherent. Nevertheless, there is direct evidence of the witans various activities. Knowledge about who made up the witan and who was present at their meetings is provided mainly by lists of witnesses to charters, or grants of land, reference to the witans acta or official decisions are also preserved in law codes. The first recorded act of a witenagemot was the law code issued by King Æthelberht of Kent ca,600, the earliest document which survives in sustained Old English prose, however, the witan was certainly in existence long before this time. Altogether, about 2000 charters and 40 law codes survive which attest to the workings of the meetings of the witan. These documents clearly indicate that the witan was composed of the nations highest echelon of both ecclesiastical and secular officers, present on the ecclesiastical side were archbishops, bishops, and abbots, and occasionally also abbesses and priests, on the secular side ealdormen and thegns. Members of the family were also present, and the king presided over the entire body. In his investigation into Anglo-Saxon institutions, H. M. Chadwick wrote, I have not thought it necessary to discuss at length the nature of the powers possessed by the council, there can be little hope of arriving at any definite conclusions on this subject. Indeed it seems at least doubtful whether the functions of the council were ever properly defined, similarly, in his study of the witenagemots, Felix Liebermann stated that its functions and power differ. Still, he was able to give a detailed description of its constitution. The king, generally indeed advised by the nobility, conferred prelatures and ealdormanries. Members of the family, ladies not excepted, were present at many gemots. The witan was noted by contemporary sources as having the power to ceosan to cyninge

23.
Isle of Wight
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The Isle of Wight /ˈaɪl əv ˈwaɪt/ is a county and the largest and second-most populous island in England. It is located in the English Channel, about 4 miles off the coast of Hampshire, the island has resorts that have been holiday destinations since Victorian times, and is known for its mild climate, coastal scenery, and verdant landscape of fields, downland and chines. The island has been home to the poets Swinburne and Tennyson and to Queen Victoria and it has a maritime and industrial tradition including boat building, sail making, the manufacture of flying boats, the hovercraft, and Britains space rockets. The island hosts annual festivals including the Isle of Wight Festival. It has well-conserved wildlife and some of the richest cliffs and quarries for dinosaur fossils in Europe, the Isle was owned by a Norman family until 1293 and was earlier a kingdom in its own right. Rural for most of its history, its Victorian fashionability and the affordability of holidays led to significant urban development during the late 19th. The island was part of Hampshire until 1890 when it became its own administrative county, apart from a shared police force, there is now no administrative link with Hampshire, although a combined local authority with Portsmouth and Southampton is being considered. Until 1995 the island had a governor, the quickest public transport link to the mainland is the hovercraft from Ryde to Southsea, while three ferry and two catamaran services cross the Solent to Southampton, Lymington and Portsmouth. During the Ice Age, sea levels were lower and the Solent was part of a river flowing south east from current day Poole Harbour towards mid-Channel. As sea levels rose, the valley became flooded. The first inhabitants are assumed to have been hunter-gatherers migrating by land during the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age period, as the ice age began to recede. From the Neolithic era onwards, there are indications that the island had wide trading links, with a port at Bouldnor, evidence of Bronze Age tin trading, caesar reported that the Belgae took the Isle of Wight in about 85 BC and gave its name as Vectis. The Roman historian Suetonius mentions that the island was captured by the commander Vespasian, the Romans built no towns or roads on the island, but the remains of at least seven Roman villas have been found, indicating the prosperity of local agriculture. During the Dark Ages the island was settled by Jutes as the kingdom of Wihtwara under King Arwald. In 685 it was invaded by Caedwalla, who tried to replace the inhabitants with his own followers and it suffered especially from Viking raids, and was often used as a winter base by Viking raiders when they were unable to reach Normandy. Later, both Earl Tostig and his brother Harold Godwinson held manors on the island, the Norman Conquest of 1066 created the position of Lord of the Isle of Wight, the island being given by William the Conqueror to his kinsman William FitzOsbern. Carisbrooke Priory and the fort of Carisbrooke Castle were then founded, allegiance was sworn to FitzOsbern rather than the king, the Lordship was subsequently granted to the de Redvers family by Henry I, after his succession in 1100. For nearly 200 years the island was a semi-independent feudal fiefdom, the final private owner was the Countess Isabella de Fortibus, who, on her deathbed in 1293, was persuaded to sell it to Edward I

24.
Kent
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Kent /ˈkɛnt/ is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south west, the county also shares borders with Essex via the Dartford Crossing and the French department of Pas-de-Calais through the Channel Tunnel. France can be clearly in fine weather from Folkestone and the White Cliffs of Dover. Hills in the form of the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge span the length of the county, because of its relative abundance of fruit-growing and hop gardens, Kent is known as The Garden of England. The title was defended in 2006 when a survey of counties by the UKTV Style Gardens channel put Kent in fifth place, behind North Yorkshire, Devon. Haulage, logistics, and tourism are industries, major industries in north-west Kent include aggregate building materials, printing. Coal mining has played its part in Kents industrial heritage. Large parts of Kent are within the London commuter belt and its transport connections to the capital. Twenty-eight per cent of the county forms part of two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the North Downs and The High Weald, the area has been occupied since the Palaeolithic era, as attested by finds from the quarries at Swanscombe. The Medway megaliths were built during the Neolithic era, There is a rich sequence of Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Roman era occupation, as indicated by finds and features such as the Ringlemere gold cup and the Roman villas of the Darent valley. The modern name of Kent is derived from the Brythonic word Cantus meaning rim or border and this describes the eastern part of the current county area as a border land or coastal district. Julius Caesar had described the area as Cantium, or home of the Cantiaci in 51 BC, the extreme west of the modern county was by the time of Roman Britain occupied by Iron Age tribes, known as the Regnenses. East Kent became a kingdom of the Jutes during the 5th century and was known as Cantia from about 730, the early medieval inhabitants of the county were known as the Cantwara, or Kent people. These people regarded the city of Canterbury as their capital, in 597, Pope Gregory I appointed the religious missionary as the first Archbishop of Canterbury. In the previous year, Augustine successfully converted the pagan King Æthelberht of Kent to Christianity, the Diocese of Canterbury became Britains first Episcopal See with first cathedral and has since remained Englands centre of Christianity. The second designated English cathedral was in Kent at Rochester Cathedral, in the 11th century, the people of Kent adopted the motto Invicta, meaning undefeated. This naming followed the invasion of Britain by William of Normandy, the Kent peoples continued resistance against the Normans led to Kents designation as a semi-autonomous county palatine in 1067. Under the nominal rule of Williams half-brother Odo of Bayeux, the county was granted powers to those granted in the areas bordering Wales

25.
Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses

26.
Harald III of Norway
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Harald Sigurdsson, given the epithet Hardrada in the sagas, was King of Norway from 1046 to 1066. In addition, he claimed the Danish throne until 1064. Prior to becoming king, Harald had spent around fifteen years in exile as a mercenary and military commander in Kievan Rus, when he was fifteen years old, in 1030, Harald fought in the Battle of Stiklestad together with his half-brother Olaf Haraldsson. Olaf sought to reclaim the Norwegian throne, which he had lost to the Danish king Cnut the Great two years prior, in the battle, Olaf and Harald were defeated by forces loyal to Cnut, and Harald was forced into exile to Kievan Rus. He thereafter spent some time in the army of Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise, eventually obtaining rank as a captain, Harald amassed considerable wealth during his time in the Byzantine Empire, which he shipped to Yaroslav in Kievan Rus for safekeeping. He finally left the Byzantines in 1042, and arrived back in Kievan Rus in order to prepare his campaign of reclaiming the Norwegian throne, possibly to Haralds knowledge, in his absence the Norwegian throne had been restored from the Danes to Olafs illegitimate son Magnus the Good. In 1046, Harald joined forces with Magnuss rival in Denmark, the pretender Sweyn II of Denmark, Magnus, unwilling to fight his uncle, agreed to share the kingship with Harald, since Harald in turn would share his wealth with him. The co-rule ended abruptly the next year as Magnus died, domestically, Harald crushed all local and regional opposition, and outlined the territorial unification of Norway under a national governance. Haralds reign was one of relative peace and stability, and he instituted a viable coin economy. Probably seeking to restore Cnuts North Sea Empire, Harald also claimed the Danish throne, although the campaigns were successful, he was never able to conquer Denmark. Harald went along and entered Northern England in September 1066, raided the coast, although initially successful, Harald was defeated and killed in an attack by Harold Godwinsons forces in the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Modern historians have often considered Haralds death at Stamford Bridge, which brought an end to his invasion, Harald is also commonly held to have been the last great Viking king, or even the last great Viking. Through his mother Åsta, Harald was the youngest of King Olaf Haraldssons three half-brothers, in his youth, Harald displayed traits of a typical rebel with big ambitions, and admired Olaf as his role model. He thus differed from his two brothers, who were more similar to their father, down-to-earth and mostly concerned with maintaining the farm. The Icelandic sagas, in particular Snorri Sturluson in Heimskringla, claim that Sigurd, following a revolt in 1028, Haralds brother Olaf was forced into exile until he returned to Norway in early 1030. On hearing news of Olafs planned return, Harald gathered 600 men from the Uplands to meet Olaf and his men upon their arrival in the east of Norway. After a friendly welcome, Olaf went on to gather an army and eventually fight in the Battle of Stiklestad on 29 July 1030, the battle was part of an attempt to restore Olaf to the Norwegian throne, which had been captured by the Danish king Cnut the Great. The battle resulted in defeat for the brothers at the hands of those Norwegians who were loyal to Cnut, Harald was nonetheless remarked to have shown considerable military talent during the battle

27.
Yorkshire
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Yorkshire, formally known as the County of York, is a historic county of Northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Due to its size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been undertaken over time by its subdivisions. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as a geographical territory, Yorkshire has sometimes been nicknamed Gods Own County or Gods Own Country. Yorkshire Day, held on 1 August, is a celebration of the culture of Yorkshire. Yorkshire is now divided between different official regions, most of the county falls within Yorkshire and the Humber. The extreme northern part of the county falls within North East England, Small areas in the west of the historic county now form part of North West England, following boundary changes in 1974. Yorkshire or the County of York was so named as it is the shire of the city of York local /ˈjɔːk/ or Yorks Shire, York comes from the Viking name for the city, Jórvík. Shire is from Old English, scir meaning care or official charge, the shire suffix is locally pronounced /-ʃə/ shuh, or occasionally /-ʃiə/, a homophone of sheer. Early inhabitants of Yorkshire were Celts, who formed two tribes, the Brigantes and the Parisi. The Brigantes controlled territory which later became all of the North Riding of Yorkshire, the tribe controlled most of Northern England and more territory than any other Celtic tribe in England. That they had the Yorkshire area as their heartland is evident in that Isurium Brigantum was the town of their civitas under Roman rule. Six of the nine Brigantian poleis described by Claudius Ptolemaeus in the Geographia fall within the historic county, the Parisi, who controlled the area that would become the East Riding of Yorkshire, might have been related to the Parisii of Lutetia Parisiorum, Gaul. Their capital was at Petuaria, close to the Humber estuary, initially, this situation suited both the Romans and the Brigantes, who were known as the most militant tribe in Britain. Queen Cartimandua left her husband Venutius for his bearer, Vellocatus. Cartimandua, due to her relationship with the Romans, was able to keep control of the kingdom. At the second attempt, Venutius seized the kingdom, but the Romans, under general Petillius Cerialis, the fortified city of Eboracum was named as capital of Britannia Inferior and joint-capital of all Roman Britain. During the two years before the death of Emperor Septimius Severus, the Roman Empire was run from Eboracum by him, another emperor, Constantius Chlorus, died in Yorkshire during a visit in 306 AD. This saw his son Constantine the Great proclaimed emperor in the city, in the early 5th century, the Roman rule ceased with the withdrawal of the last active Roman troops

28.
Battle of Stamford Bridge
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After a bloody battle, both Hardrada and Tostig along with most of the Norwegians were killed. Although Harold Godwinson repelled the Norwegian invaders, his army was defeated by the Normans at Hastings less than three weeks later. The death of King Edward the Confessor of England in January 1066 had triggered a struggle in which a variety of contenders from across north-western Europe fought for the English throne. These claimants included the King of Norway, Harald Hardrada, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Manuscript D, the Norwegians assembled a fleet of 300 ships to invade England. The authors, however, did not seem to differentiate between warships and supply ships, in King Haralds Saga, Snorri Sturluson states. It is said that King Harald had over two hundred ships, apart from ships and smaller craft. Combined with reinforcements picked up in Orkney, the Norwegian army most likely numbered between 7,000 and 9,000 men, arriving off the English coast in September Hardrada was joined by further forces recruited in Flanders and Scotland by Tostig Godwinson. Tostig was at odds with his elder brother Harold, having been ousted from his position as Earl of Northumbria and exiled in 1065, Tostig had mounted a series of abortive attacks on England in the spring of 1066. In the late summer of 1066, the invaders sailed up the Ouse before advancing on York. On 20 September they defeated a northern English army led by Edwin, Earl of Mercia, following this victory they received the surrender of York. Having briefly occupied the city and taken hostages and supplies from the city they returned towards their ships at Riccall and they offered peace to the Northumbrians in exchange for their support for Hardradas bid for the throne, and demanded further hostages from the whole of Yorkshire. At this time King Harold was in Southern England, anticipating an invasion from France by William, Duke of Normandy, learning of the Norwegian invasion he headed north at great speed with his houscarls and as many thegns as he could gather, travelling day and night. He made the journey from London to Yorkshire, a distance of about 185 miles, in four days. Until the English army came into view the invaders remained unaware of the presence of a hostile army anywhere in the vicinity, there is some controversy as to whether or not a village and bridge existed at the time of the battle. One theory holds that there was no village at Stamford Bridge in 1066 and not even in 1086 when the Domesday Book was compiled. According to this theory, the name is locative and descriptive of crossing points over the River Derwent being derived from a combination of the stone, ford and bridge i. e. stoneford. At the location of the present village, within the river bed, at low water levels one could easily cross over the river at this point, either on foot or horseback. Most likely the Stamford Bridge lands were included with Low Catton, as for the presence of a bridge, manuscripts C, D and E of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle all mention Stamford Bridge by name

29.
Pevensey
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Pevensey is a village and civil parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex, England. The main village is located 5 miles north-east of Eastbourne, one mile inland from Pevensey Bay, the settlement of Pevensey Bay forms part of the parish. It was here that William the Conqueror made the landing in his invasion of England in 1066 after crossing the English Channel from Normandy, Pevensey is situated on a spur of sand and clay, about 10 metres above sea level. In Roman times this spur was a peninsula that projected into a tidal lagoon, a small river, Pevensey Haven, runs along the north side of the peninsula and would originally have discharged into the lagoon, but is now largely silted up. The lagoon extended inland as far north as Hailsham and eastwards to Hooe, with the effect of longshore drift this large bay was gradually cut off from the sea by shingle, so that todays marshes are all that remain behind the shingle beach. The marshes, known as the Pevensey Levels, cover an area of around 47 miles² and they are a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a large nature reserve, jointly owned by Natural England and the Sussex Wildlife Trust. There are many rare plants and invertebrates, including the fen raft spider. The site is very fragile and general access is not permitted, the settlement of Pevensey Bay lies behind and on the shingle beach. Although small, it is nevertheless a seaside resort in miniature, the name Pevensey was first recorded in 947 as Pefenesea, meaning River of Pefen. It derives from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Pefen plus eã, river, by the 4th century the south and east of the province of Britannia was under frequent attack from marauding barbarian tribes, including the Jutes and Saxons. To counter these attacks the Romans built a total of eleven forts between Essex and the Isle of Wight, now known as the Saxon Shore Forts, the fort at Pevensey, built between AD300 and 340, was named Anderitum. The earliest stone remains on the date from the Roman period. The sea washed over what is now Pevensey Marshes, surrounding the fort on three sides. When the Roman army left Britain, the province was vulnerable to attack, first by the Jutes in east Kent. Following the Jutish example the Saxons began invading Britain in earnest, around 491, Saxons, possibly led by Ælle of Sussex began to colonise the south coast and besieged Anderitum over a number of years. After a long struggle the British defences were overrun, some remaining Britons on the south coast fled north, others emigrated by boat to what is now called Brittany and the area became the Kingdom of the South Saxons, later called Sussex. The old Roman fort of Anderida was burned and left derelict, the English army remained at the fort during the summer of 1066 before abandoning it to meet the invading Norwegians further north. When William the Conqueror invaded Sussex in September 1066 there were no defenders at Pevensey and the bay provided a safe haven for the invading fleet

30.
Battle of Hastings
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It took place approximately 7 miles northwest of Hastings, close to the present-day town of Battle, East Sussex, and was a decisive Norman victory. The background to the battle was the death of the childless King Edward the Confessor in January 1066, Harold was crowned king shortly after Edwards death, but faced invasions by William, his own brother Tostig and the Norwegian King Harald Hardrada. Hardrada and Tostig defeated a hastily gathered army of Englishmen at the Battle of Fulford on 20 September 1066, the deaths of Tostig and Hardrada at Stamford Bridge left William as Harolds only serious opponent. While Harold and his forces were recovering, William landed his forces in the south of England at Pevensey on 28 September 1066. Harold was forced to march south swiftly, gathering forces as he went, the exact numbers present at the battle are unknown, modern estimates are around 10,000 for William and about 7,000 for Harold. Harold appears to have tried to surprise William, but scouts found his army and reported its arrival to William, the battle lasted from about 9 am to dusk. Early efforts of the invaders to break the English battle lines had little effect, therefore, Harolds death, probably near the end of the battle, led to the retreat and defeat of most of his army. After further marching and some skirmishes, William was crowned as king on Christmas Day 1066, there continued to be rebellions and resistance to Williams rule, but Hastings effectively marked the culmination of Williams conquest of England. Casualty figures are hard to come by, but some estimate that 2,000 invaders died along with about twice that number of Englishmen. William founded a monastery at the site of the battle, the altar of the abbey church supposedly placed at the spot where Harold died. In 911, French Carolingian ruler Charles the Simple allowed a group of Vikings to settle in Normandy under their leader Rollo and their settlement proved successful, and they quickly adapted to the indigenous culture, renouncing paganism, converting to Christianity, and intermarrying with the local population. Over time, the frontiers of the duchy expanded to the west, in 1002, King Æthelred II of England married Emma, the sister of Richard II, Duke of Normandy. Their son Edward the Confessor spent many years in exile in Normandy, Edward was childless and embroiled in conflict with the formidable Godwin, Earl of Wessex and his sons, and he may also have encouraged Duke William of Normandys ambitions for the English throne. Following King Edwards death on 5 January 1066, the lack of a clear heir led to a succession in which several contenders laid claim to the throne of England. Edwards immediate successor was the Earl of Wessex, Harold Godwinson, Harold was at once challenged by two powerful neighbouring rulers. Duke William claimed that he had promised the throne by King Edward. Harald III of Norway, commonly known as Harald Hardrada, also contested the succession, William and Harald Hardrada immediately set about assembling troops and ships for separate invasions. In early 1066, Harolds exiled brother Tostig Godwinson raided south-eastern England with a fleet he had recruited in Flanders, threatened by Harolds fleet, Tostig moved north and raided in East Anglia and Lincolnshire

31.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area

32.
Berkhamsted
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Berkhamsted /ˈbɜːrkəmstɛd/ is a medium-sized historic market town on the western edge of Hertfordshire, England. The affluent commuter town is located in the small Bulbourne valley in the Chiltern Hills,26 miles northwest of London, Berkhamsted is a civil parish, with a town council within the larger borough of Dacorum. People have been living in the Berkhamsted area for over 5,000 years, there is evidence of flint working in the Neolithic period and metal working in the late Iron Age and Roman periods. The high street is on a route known by its Saxon name Akeman Street. The earliest written reference to Berkhamsted is in 970AD, Berkhamsted was recorded as a burbium in the Domesday Book in 1086. The oldest known extant jettied timber-framed building in Great Britain, built 1277 -1297, in the 13th and 14th century the town was a wool trading town, with thriving local market. The most important event in the history was in December 1066. After William the Conqueror defeated King Harolds Anglo-Saxon army at the Battle of Hastings, the event was recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. After the castle was abandoned in 1495 the town went into decline, modern Berkhamsted began to expand following the construction of the canal and the railway in the 19th century. Among those born in Berkhamsted was Colonel Daniel Axtell, who was the captain of the Parliamentary Guard at the trial, the towns literary connections include the 17th century hymnist and poet, William Cowper, the 18th century writer Maria Edgeworth, and the 20th century novelist Graham Greene. The earliest recorded spelling of the name is the 10th century Anglo-Saxon Beorhðanstædæ. The first part originates from the Old Celtic word Bearroc, meaning place, alternatively it may originate from the Old English words beorg, meaning hill, or berc or beorc. The latter part, hamsted, derives from the Old English word for homestead, Local historian Percy Birtchnell identified over 50 different spellings and epithets for the towns name since the writing of the Domesday Book, the present spelling was adopted in 1937. Other spellings included, Berkstead, Berkampsted, Berkhampstead, Muche Barkhamstede, Berkhamsted Magna, Great Berkhamsteed, the towns local nickname is Berko. Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman artefacts show that the Berkhamsted area of the Bulbourne Valley has been settled for over 5,000 years, the discovery of a large number of worked flint chips provides Neolithic evidence of on-site flint knapping in the centre of Berkhamsted. Several settlements dating from the Neolithic to the Iron Age have been discovered south of Berkhamsted. Three sections of a late Bronze Age to Iron Age bank and ditch, sixteen feet wide by seven to thirteen feet high, another Iron Age dyke with the same name is on Berkhamsted Common, on the north side of the valley. In the late Iron Age, prior to the Roman occupation, the Bulbourne Valley was rich in timber and iron ore

33.
Stigand
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Stigand was an Anglo-Saxon churchman in pre-Norman Conquest England who became Archbishop of Canterbury. His birth date is unknown, but by 1020 he was serving as a royal chaplain and he was named Bishop of Elmham in 1043, and was later Bishop of Winchester and Archbishop of Canterbury. Stigand was as an advisor to members of the Anglo-Saxon and Norman English royal dynasties. Stigand was imprisoned at Winchester, where he died without regaining his liberty, Stigand served King Cnut as a chaplain at a royal foundation at Ashingdon in 1020, and as an advisor then and later. He continued in his role of advisor during the reigns of Cnuts sons, Harold Harefoot, when Cnuts stepson Edward the Confessor succeeded Harthacnut, Stigand in all probability became Englands main administrator. Monastic writers of the time accused Stigand of extorting money and lands from the church, and by 1066 the only estates richer than Stigands were the royal estates, in 1043 Edward appointed Stigand to the see of Elmham. Four years later he was appointed to the see of Winchester, and then in 1052 to the archdiocese of Canterbury, five successive popes, including Nicholas II and Alexander II, excommunicated Stigand for holding both Winchester and Canterbury. Stigand was present at the deathbed of King Edward and at the coronation of Harold Godwinson as king of England in 1066, after Harolds death, Stigand submitted to William the Conqueror. On Christmas Day 1066 Ealdred, the Archbishop of York, crowned William King of England, Stigands excommunication meant that he could only assist at the coronation. Despite growing pressure for his deposition, Stigand continued to attend the court and to consecrate bishops, until in 1070 he was deposed by papal legates. His intransigence towards the papacy was used as propaganda by Norman advocates of the view that the English church was backward, neither the year nor the date of Stigands birth is known. His brother Æthelmær, also a cleric, later succeeded Stigand as bishop of Elmham and his sister held land in Norwich, but her given name is unrecorded. Stigand first appears in the record in 1020 as a royal chaplain to King Cnut of England. In that year he was appointed to Cnuts church at Ashingdon, or Assandun, little is known of Stigands life during Cnuts reign, but he must have had a place at the royal court, as he witnessed occasional charters. Following Cnuts death Stigand successively served Cnuts sons, Harold Harefoot, after Harthacnut died Stigand became an advisor to Emma of Normandy, Cnuts widow and the mother of Harthacnut and his successor Edward the Confessor. He may have been Emmas chaplain, and it is possible that Stigand was already one of her advisors while Cnut was alive, because little is known of Stigands activities before his appointment as a bishop, it is difficult to determine to whom he owed his position. Stigand was appointed to the see of Elmham shortly after Edward the Confessors coronation on 3 April 1043 and this was the first episcopal appointment of Edwards reign. The diocese of Elmham covered East Anglia in eastern England, and was one of the episcopal sees at that time

34.
Archbishop of Canterbury
–
The current archbishop is Justin Welby. His enthronement took place at Canterbury Cathedral on 21 March 2013, Welby is the 105th in a line which goes back more than 1400 years to Augustine of Canterbury, the Apostle to the English, sent from Rome in the year 597. From the time of Augustine in the 6th until the 16th century, during the English Reformation the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. In the Middle Ages there was variation in the methods of nomination of the Archbishop of Canterbury. At various times the choice was made by the canons of Canterbury Cathedral, today the archbishop fills four main roles, He is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury, which covers the eastern parts of the County of Kent. Founded in 597, it is the oldest see in the English church and he is the metropolitan archbishop of the Province of Canterbury, which covers the southern two-thirds of England. He is the primate and chief religious figure of the Church of England. The Archbishop of Canterbury plays a part in national ceremonies such as coronations, due to his high public profile. As spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop, although without legal authority outside England, is recognised by convention as primus inter pares of all Anglican primates worldwide, since 1867 he has convened more or less decennial meetings of worldwide Anglican bishops, the Lambeth Conferences. In the last two of these functions he has an important ecumenical and interfaith role, speaking on behalf of Anglicans in England, the archbishops main residence is Lambeth Palace in the London Borough of Lambeth. He also has lodgings in the Old Palace, Canterbury, located beside Canterbury Cathedral, as holder of one of the five great sees, the Archbishop of Canterbury is ex officio one of the Lords Spiritual of the House of Lords. He is one of the men in England and the highest ranking non-royal in the United Kingdoms order of precedence. Since Henry VIII broke with Rome, the Archbishops of Canterbury have been selected by the English monarch, today the choice is made in the name of the monarch by the prime minister, from a shortlist of two selected by an ad-hoc committee called the Crown Nominations Commission. Since the 20th century, the appointment of Archbishops of Canterbury conventionally alternates between more moderate Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals, the current archbishop, Justin Welby, the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury, was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on 4 February 2013. As archbishop he signs himself as + Justin Cantuar and his predecessor, Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on 27 February 2003. Immediately prior to his appointment to Canterbury, Williams was the Bishop of Monmouth, on 18 March 2012, Williams announced he would be stepping down as Archbishop of Canterbury at the end of 2012 to become Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. In addition to his office, the archbishop also holds a number of positions, for example, he is Joint President of the Council of Christians. Some positions he formally holds ex officio and others virtually so, geoffrey Fisher, 99th Archbishop of Canterbury, was the first since 1397 to visit Rome, where he held private talks with Pope John XXIII in 1960

35.
Wallingford, Oxfordshire
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Wallingford is an ancient market town and civil parish in the upper Thames Valley in England. Historically in Berkshire, it was transferred to Oxfordshire in 1974, Wallingford is situated 12 miles north of Reading,13 miles south of Oxford and 11 miles north west of Henley-on-Thames. The towns royal but mostly ruined Wallingford Castle held high status in the medieval period as a regular royal residence until the Black Death hit the town badly in 1349. Empress Matilda retreated here for the time from Oxford Castle in 1141. The castle declined subsequently, much stone being removed to renovate Windsor Castle, nonetheless the towns Priory produced two of the greatest minds of the age, the mathematician Richard of Wallingford and the chronicler John of Wallingford. Wallingford is on the west bank of the River Thames downstream of Oxford, at southern end of the town is the settlement of Winterbrook. The town bypass crosses the river to the southwest over Winterbrook Bridge, the centre of Wallingford has the feel of a typical old market town, with a large open town square around the war memorial, the 17th century arcaded town hall, and numerous shops. There are some alleyways and a number of historic inns, amenities include Wallingford Museum, the Corn Exchange theatre, Cholsey and Wallingford steam railway, public parks - one with the castle ruins. A blues festival, the annual BunkFest folk festival and a carnival are popular annual events, in recent years, the town has been used as a location for filming, notably Midsomer Murders which has also featured the Parish Church Choir. Wallingford is run by a council consisting of 16 councillors. It is part of the South Oxfordshire district and the county of Oxfordshire having formerly been represented by the Municipal Borough of Wallingford, the Member of Parliament is Ed Vaizey and the County Councillor is Lynda Atkins, one of four Independent members of Oxfordshire County Council. As with the rest of the British Isles and Oxfordshire, Wallingford experiences a climate with cool summers. There has been a station at the nearby Centre for Ecology & Hydrology collecting data on the local climate since 1961. Temperature extremes at Wallingford vary from −21.0 °C in January 1982, recent low temperatures include −17.6 °C during January 2010 and −17.5 °C during December 2010. Wallingford grew up around an important crossing point of the River Thames, the place has been fortified since at least Anglo-Saxon times, when it was an important fortified borough of Wessex with the right to mint Royal coinage. It was enclosed with substantial earthworks by King Alfred the Great in the 9th century as part of a network of fortified towns known as burhs or burghs to protect Wessex against the Vikings. These defences can still be discerned as a group of four roughly square areas around the centre of the town and are probably the best preserved such fortifications in England. Wallingford became the town of Berkshire and the seat of the countys Ealdorman

36.
Exeter
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Exeter is a cathedral city in Devon, England with a population of 127,300. It lies within the county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council, currently, the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district and is therefore under the administration of the County Council. The city is on the River Exe about 37 miles northeast of Plymouth and 70 miles southwest of Bristol, Exeter was the most south-westerly Roman fortified settlement in Britain, although there is evidence a Cornish tribe existed in Exeter before the Roman invasion. Exeter became a centre during the Middle Ages and into the Tudor times, Exeter Cathedral, founded in the mid 11th century. During the late 19th century, Exeter became an affluent centre for the wool trade, after the Second World War, much of the city centre was rebuilt and is now considered to be a centre for modern business and tourism in Devon and Cornwall. The name Exe is a development of the Brittonic name—meaning water or, more exactly, full of fish —that also appears in the English Axe and Esk, the Welsh Usk. Exeter began as settlements on a dry ridge ending in a spur overlooking a navigable river teeming with fish, although there have been no major prehistoric finds, these advantages suggest the site was occupied early. Coins have been discovered from the Hellenistic kingdoms, suggesting the existence of a settlement trading with the Mediterranean as early as 250 BC. Such early towns had been a feature of pre-Roman Gaul as described by Julius Caesar in his Commentaries, the Romans established a 42-acre playing-card shaped fort named Isca around AD55. To distinguish the two, the Romans also referred to Exeter as Isca Dumnoniorum, Watertown of the Dumnonii, a small fort was also maintained at Topsham, a supply depot on the route between the two was excavated at St Loyes on Topsham Road in 2010. The presence of the built up an unplanned civilian community of natives. This area was excavated in the 1970s, but could not be maintained for public view owing to its proximity to the present-day cathedral, in January 2015, it was announced that Exeter Cathedral had launched a bid to restore the baths and open an underground centre for visitors. In the late 2nd century, the ditch and rampart defences around the old fortress were replaced by a bank and wall enclosing a much larger area, although most of the visible structure is older, the course of the Roman wall was used for Exeters subsequent city walls. Thus about 70% of the Roman wall remains, and most of its route can be traced on foot, the dating of the coins so far discovered, however, suggests a rapid decline, virtually none have been discovered dated after the year 380. By that time, the city was held by the Saxons, Exeter was known to the Saxons as Escanceaster. In 876, it was attacked and briefly captured by Danish Vikings, alfred the Great drove them out the next summer. Over the next few years, he elevated Exeter to one of the four burhs in Devon and these permitted the city to fend off another attack and siege by the Danes in 893. King Athelstan again strengthened the walls around 928, and at the time drove out the remaining Britons from the city

37.
Rougemont Castle
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Rougemont Castle, also known as Exeter Castle, is the historic castle of the city of Exeter, Devon, England. It was built into the corner of the Roman city walls starting in or shortly after the year 1068. In 1136 it was besieged for three months by King Stephen, an outer bailey, of which little now remains, was added later in the 12th century. The castle is mentioned in Shakespeares play Richard III in a reference to that visit to Exeter in 1483. Devons county court was located here from at least 1607, all the buildings inside the walls were swept away in the 1770s to make way for a new courthouse, which was extended by the addition of wings in 1895 and 1905. Because of its function as a court, the interior of the castle was not open to the public until the court moved to a new site in 2004. The entire site was sold to a developer whose stated aim was to transform it into the Covent Garden of the South West. The castle is named after the red stone found in the hill and it is surrounded on three sides by the Rougemont Gardens and Northernhay Gardens, public parks now maintained by Exeter City Council. After the Norman conquest of 1066, Gytha, mother of the defeated King Harold, was living in Exeter, another reason for discontent may have been Williams insistence that the citys traditional annual tribute of £18 must be increased. After Exeters citizens rejected Williams demand that they should swear an oath of fealty to him, he marched to the city in 1068 and laid siege to it for 18 days before it capitulated. The citizens of Exeter had been able to withstand Williams siege thanks to the city wall, although the siege ended with the surrender of the city, William ordered a castle to be built within the wall to safeguard his position. The place selected was at the highest point, inside the angle of the wall. The building of the castle was left to Baldwin FitzGilbert who was appointed castellan, a deep ditch and internal rampart were constructed between the north-western and north-eastern city walls, forming a roughly square enclosure with sides of about 600 feet. A large stone gatehouse, which survives, was built into the bank at the south side of the enclosure. It has clear elements of Anglo-Saxon architecture, such as long-and-short quoins and double triangular-headed windows, suggesting that it was built very early by English masons on the Normans orders. At this early stage the rampart was probably surmounted by a stockade, the stockade was soon replaced by a masonry curtain wall. The remains of this shows that it was bonded into the repaired city walls. Another early enhancement was the construction of a protective barbican over the city side of the drawbridge, there is evidence that the castle was attacked before it was completed

38.
Winchester Castle
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Winchester Castle is a medieval building in Hampshire, England. Only the Great Hall still stands, it houses a museum of the history of Winchester, between 1222–1235, Henry III added the Great Hall, built to a double cube design, measuring 110 ft by 55 ft by 55 ft. The Great Hall is built of flint with dressings, originally it had lower walls. In their place were added the tall windows with early plate tracery. Extensions to the castle were made by Edward II, in 1873 the roof of the Great Hall was completely replaced. An imitation Arthurian Round Table hangs in the Great Hall, the table was originally constructed in the 13th century, and repainted in its present form for Henry VIII, around the edge of the table are the names of King Arthurs knights. Behind the Great Hall is a re-creation of a garden called Queen Eleanors Garden. A series of pictorial epigrams illuminated in medieval monastic style known as The Winchester Panels hang in the Great Hall and they depict the 25 knights of the Round Table and illustrate the challenges facing a maturing character as it progresses round the great Wheel of Life. In 1141, during The Anarchy, forces of the Empress Matilda were besieged by King Stephen at the castle, in 1302, Edward I and his second wife, Margaret of France, narrowly escaped death when the royal apartments of the castle were destroyed by fire. On 19 March 1330, Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent was beheaded outside the walls in the Despenser plot against King Edward III. Margaret of York, daughter of King Edward IV, was here on 10 April 1472. On 17 November 1603 Sir Walter Raleigh went on trial for treason for his part in the Main Plot in the converted Great Hall. The castle was used by the Royalists in the English Civil War, oliver Cromwell then ordered the castles destruction. In the 17th century, Charles II planned to build Kings House adjoining the site, since 1889 Winchester Castle has been the seat of Hampshire County Council whose offices neighbour the Great Hall. Nearby, the remains of the round tower with Sally ports. Winchester Castle is also the name of a football team. Castles in Great Britain and Ireland List of castles in England Three Castles Path The Great Hall and Round Table - official site

39.
Warwick
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Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England. The town lies upon the River Avon,11 miles south of Coventry and just west of Leamington Spa, at the 2011 United Kingdom census, it had a population of 31,345. There was human activity at Warwick as early as the Neolithic period and it was a Saxon burh in the 9th century, Warwick Castle was established in 1068 as part of the Norman conquest of England. Warwick School claims to be the oldest boys school in the country, the earldom of Warwick was created in 1088 and the earls controlled the town in the medieval period and built town walls, of which Eastgate and Westgate survive. The castle developed into a fortress and then a country house and is today a popular tourist attraction. The Great Fire of Warwick in 1694 destroyed much of the medieval town, though Warwick did not become industrialised in the 19th century, it has experienced growth since 1801 when the population was 5,592. Racing Club Warwick F. C. founded in 1919, is based in the town, the town is administered by Warwick District Council and Warwickshire County Council has its headquarters in Warwick. Human activity on the site of the dates back to the Neolithic. From the 6th century onwards, Warwick has been continuously inhabited and it was one of ten burhs built to defend the kingdom of Mercia against the Danes. Warwick was chosen as the site for one of these fortifications because of its proximity to the important transport routes of the Fosse Way, in the early 10th century a new shire was founded with Warwick as its administrative centre, giving the settlement new importance. The name Warwick means dwellings by the weir, in 1050 the Danes invaded Mercia and burned down much of Warwick including the nunnery. William the Conqueror founded Warwick Castle in 1068 on his way to Yorkshire to deal with rebellion in the north, building a castle within a pre-existing settlement could require demolishing properties on the site, and in the case of Warwick four houses were pulled down. The castle was within the larger Anglo-Saxon burh and a new wall was created close to the rampart of the burh. In the medieval period Warwick remained under the control of various Earls of Warwick, mostly of the Beauchamp family, today the only remains of the town walls are the east and west gatehouses. The eastern gatehouse is now a home, but formerly served as part of the Kings High School. Warwick was not incorporated as a borough until 1545, the towns Priory was founded in 1142 on the site of the current Priory Park. During the English Civil War the town and castle were garrisoned for Parliament, the garrison, under Sir Edward Peyto, withstood a two-week siege by the Royalists. Later musters from 1644 to 1646 record a garrison of up to 350 men under the command of Colonel William Purefoy, the middle of the 17th century also saw the founding of Castle Hill Baptist Church, one of the oldest Baptist churches in the world

40.
Nottingham
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Nottingham is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, England, located 128 miles north of London, in the East Midlands. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robin Hood and to the lace-making, bicycle and it was granted its city charter in 1897 as part of Queen Victorias Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Nottingham is a tourist destination, in 2011, visitors spent over £1.5 billion - the thirteenth highest amount in Englands 111 statistical territories. In 2015, Nottingham had an population of 321,550 with the wider urban area. Its urban area is the largest in the east Midlands and the second largest in the Midlands, the population of the Nottingham/Derby metropolitan area is estimated to be 1,610,000. Its metropolitan economy is the seventh largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $50. 9bn, the city is also ranked as a sufficiency-level world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. It is also a sporting centre, and in October 2015 was named Home of English Sport. The city also has rugby, ice hockey and cricket teams, and the Aegon Nottingham Open. This accolade came just over a year after Nottingham was named as the UKs first City of Football, on 11 December 2015, Nottingham was named a Unesco City of Literature, joining Norwich, Melbourne, Prague and Barcelona as one of only a handful in the world. The title reflects Nottinghams literary heritage, with Lord Byron, DH Lawrence and it has two universities, the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University, which are attended by over 70,610 students. In modern Welsh it is known poetically as Y Ty Ogofog, when it fell under the rule of a Saxon chieftain named Snot it became known as Snotingaham, the homestead of Snots people. Some authors derive Nottingham from Snottenga, caves, and ham, Nottingham Castle was constructed in 1068 on a sandstone outcrop by the River Leen. Following the Norman Conquest the Saxon settlement developed into the English Borough of Nottingham and housed a Town Hall, a settlement also developed around the castle on the hill opposite and was the French borough supporting the Normans in the castle. Eventually, the space between was built on as the town grew and the Old Market Square became the focus of Nottingham several centuries later, defences, consisted initially of a ditch and bank in the early 12th century. The ditch was later widened, in the mid 13th century, a short length of the wall survives, and is visible at the northern end of Maid Marian Way, and is protected as a Scheduled Monument. On the return of Richard the Lionheart from the Crusades, the Castle was occupied by supporters of Prince John and it was besieged by Richard and, after a sharp conflict, was captured. In the legends of Robin Hood, Nottingham Castle is the scene of the showdown between the Sheriff and the hero outlaw. By the 15th century Nottingham had established itself as a centre of an export trade in religious sculpture made from Nottingham Alabaster

1080s in England
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Events from the 1080s in England. Monarch – William I, William II108014 May – William Walcher, Bishop of Durham, is killed by rebel Northumbrians, autumn – Williams son Robert Curthose sent to invade Scotland, reaches as far as Falkirk. Robert Curthose builds a castle on the River Tyne, now Newcastle upon Tyne, gundulf of Rochester begins building

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White Tower (Tower of London)

England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain

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Stonehenge, a Neolithic monument

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Flag

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Boudica led an uprising against the Roman Empire

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Replica of a 7th-century ceremonial helmet from the Kingdom of East Anglia, found at Sutton Hoo

Edward the Confessor
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Edward the Confessor, also known as Saint Edward the Confessor, was among the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England, and usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066. When Edward died in 1066, he was succeeded by Harold Godwinson, Edgar the Ætheling, who was of the House of Wessex, was proclaimed king after the Batt

Harold Godwinson
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Harold Godwinson, often called Harold II, was the last Anglo-Saxon king of England. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October and his death marked the end of Anglo-Saxon rule over England. Harold was an earl and member of a prominent Anglo-Saxon family with ties to Cnut the Great. Upon the death of E

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HAROLD SACRAMENTUM FECIT VVILLELMO DUCI ("Harold made an oath to Duke William"). (Bayeux Tapestry) This scene is stated in the previous scene on the Tapestry to have taken place at Bagia (Bayeux, probably in Bayeux Cathedral). It shows Harold touching two altars with the enthroned Duke looking on, and is central to the Norman Invasion of England.

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Harold's death depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry, reflecting the tradition that Harold was killed by an arrow in the eye. The annotation above states Harold Rex Interfectus Est, "Harold the King was killed".

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The spot where Harold died, which became the site of Battle Abbey

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Bosham Church: the lower three storeys of the tower are Saxon, the top storey Norman

William I of England
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William I, usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman King of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. A descendant of Rollo, he was Duke of Normandy from 1035 onward, after a long struggle to establish his power, by 1060 his hold on Normandy was secure, and he launched the Norman conq

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William as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry during the Battle of Hastings, lifting his helm to show that he is still alive

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Château de Falaise in Falaise, Lower Normandy, France; William was born in an earlier building here.

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Column at the site of the Battle of Val-ès-Dunes

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Image from the Bayeux Tapestry showing William with his half-brothers. William is in the centre, Odo is on the left with empty hands, and Robert is on the right with a sword in his hand.

Waltham Abbey (abbey)
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The Abbey Church of Waltham Holy Cross and St Lawrence is the parish church of the town of Waltham Abbey, Essex, England. It has been a place of worship since the 7th century, the present building dates mainly from the early 12th century and is an example of Norman architecture. To the east of the church are traces of an enormous eastward enlargeme

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Waltham Abbey

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The surviving bridge and gatehouse of the abbey

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Waltham Abbey depicted in 1851, before the rebuilding works

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Burges's East Wall and Zodiac Ceiling

Westminster Abbey
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It is one of the United Kingdoms most notable religious buildings and the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English and, later, British monarchs. Between 1540 and 1556, the abbey had the status of a cathedral, since 1560, however, the building is no longer an abbey nor a cathedral, having instead the status of a Church of England

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Western façade

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Flag of Westminster Abbey, featuring the Tudor arms between Tudor Roses above the supposed arms of Edward the Confessor

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St Peter's Abbey at the time of Edward's funeral, depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry

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Layout plan dated 1894

Malcolm III of Scotland
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Malcolm was King of Scots from 1058 to 1093. Malcolms long reign of 35 years preceded the beginning of the Scoto-Norman age and he is the historical equivalent of the character of the same name in William Shakespeares Macbeth. Malcolm III fought a series of wars against the Kingdom of England and these wars did not result in any significant advance

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Victorian depiction of Malcolm and his second wife, Margaret

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Late medieval depiction of Malcolm with MacDuff, from an MS (Corpus Christi MS 171) of Walter Bower 's Scotichronicon

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Malcolm and Margaret as depicted in a 16th-century armorial. Anachronistically, Malcolm's surcoat is embroidered with the royal arms of Scotland, which probably did not come into use until the time of William the Lion. Margaret's kirtle displays the supposed arms of her great-uncle Edward the Confessor, which were in fact invented in the 13th century, though they were based on a design which appeared on coins from his reign

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William Rufus, "the Red", king of the English (1087–1100)

Northumbria
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The Kingdom of Northumbria was a medieval Anglian kingdom in what is now northern England and south-east Scotland, which subsequently became an earldom in a unified English kingdom. The name reflects the southern limit to the kingdoms territory. Northumbria was formed by Æthelfrith in central Great Britain in Anglo-Saxon times, at the beginning of

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Extent of Northumbria in 800

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This article is about the medieval English kingdom. For the Old English dialect, see Northumbrian dialect. For the modern county, see Northumberland.

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Coin of Eric Bloodaxe at the British Museum. The legend reads ERIC REX ("King Eric")

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Page from the Lindisfarne Gospels, c 700.

Mercia
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Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. The name is a Latinisation of the Old English Mierce or Myrce, the kingdom was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries, in the region now known as the English Midlands. The kingdoms capital was the town of Tamworth, which was the seat of the Mercian Kings from at leas

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The Staffordshire Hoard, discovered in a field in Hammerwich, near Lichfield in July 2009, is perhaps the most important collection of Anglo-Saxon objects found in England

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Flag

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The Lichfield Angel carving

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Arms of St Albans City Council

Bishop of Worcester
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The Bishop of Worcester is the head of the Church of England Diocese of Worcester in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title can be traced back to the foundation of the diocese in the year 680, from then until the 16th century, the bishops were in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. During the Reformation, the church in England br

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Arms of the Bishop of Worcester: Argent, ten torteaux, four, three, two and one

Earl of Wessex
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Earl of Wessex is a title that has been created three times in British history, twice in the pre-Conquest Anglo-Saxon nobility of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The region of Wessex, in the south and southwest of England, had one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Wessex was one of the four earldoms of Anglo-Danish England, in thi

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HRH The Prince Edward, the current Earl of Wessex

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Earldom of Wessex

Wales
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Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, and it had a population in 2011 of 3,063,456 and has a total area of 20,779 km2. Wales has over 1,680 miles of coastline and is mountainous, with its higher peaks in the north and central

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Bryn Celli Ddu, a late Neolithic chambered tomb on Anglesey

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Flag

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This article is about the country. For other uses, see Wales (disambiguation).

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Coin of Magnus Maximus

Gwynedd
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Gwynedd is an area in north-west Wales, named after the old Kingdom of Gwynedd. As a local government area, it is the second biggest in Wales in terms of geographical area, a majority of the population are Welsh-speaking. The name Gwynedd is also used for a county, covering the two local government areas of Gwynedd and the Isle of Anglesey. Cultura

1.
View of Tremadog bay.

Gruffydd ap Llywelyn
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Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was the King of Wales from 1055 to 1063. He was the son of King Llywelyn ap Seisyll, although the true lineage of his grandfather Seisyll is obscure, he claimed to be the great-great-grandson of Hywel Dda. Gruffydd was the son of Llywelyn ap Seisyll, who had been able to rule both Gwynedd and Powys, on Llywelyns death in 1023,

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Gwynedd, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn's kingdom

Normandy
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Normandy is one of the regions of France, roughly corresponding to the historical Duchy of Normandy. Administratively, Normandy is divided into five departments, Calvados, Eure, Manche, Orne and it covers 30,627 km², forming roughly 5% of the territory of France. Its population of 3.37 million accounts for around 5% of the population of France, Nor

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Roman theatre in Lillebonne

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Allied invasion of Normandy, D-Day, 1944

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A typical northeastern Norman village

Guy I of Ponthieu
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Guy I of Ponthieu was born sometime in the mid to late 1020s and died 13 October 1100. He succeeded his brother Enguerrand as Count of Ponthieu, Guy was a younger son of Hugh II, Count of Ponthieu and about 1053 succeeded his brother Enguerrand II, as Count of Ponthieu. The Ponthievin alliance with Duke William of Normandy had earlier been secured

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Guy capturing Harold, scene 7 of the Bayeux Tapestry

Homage (medieval)
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Homage in the Middle Ages was the ceremony in which a feudal tenant or vassal pledged reverence and submission to his feudal lord, receiving in exchange the symbolic title to his new position. It was an acknowledgement to the lord that the vassal was, literally. The oath known as fealty implied lesser obligations than did homage, a similar concept

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Harold Sacramentum Fecit Willelmo Duci (Bayeux Tapestry)

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Homage in the Middle Ages

Brittany
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Brittany is a cultural region in the north-west of France. Brittany has also referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain. It is bordered by the English Channel to the north, the Celtic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and its land area is 34,023 km². Since reorganisation in 1956, the administrative region of Brittany comprises only four of

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The Carnac stones.

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The five Gallic tribes of Brittany.

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The temple of Mars in Corseul.

York
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York is a historic walled city at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The municipality is the county town of Yorkshire to which it gives its name. The city has a heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events in England throughout much of its two millennia of existence. The city offers a wealth

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York city centre from above

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Roman wall and the west corner tower of Eboracum. The top half is medieval.

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Roman Emperor Constantine the Great proclaimed Emperor at York in AD 306.

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Micklegate – York is famous for its medieval city walls.

Wilton Abbey
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Wilton Abbey was a Benedictine convent in Wiltshire, England, three miles from Salisbury on the site now occupied by Wilton House. Owing to the consent given by this king he is counted as the first founder of this monastery, Saint Alburga herself joined the community, and died at Wilton. King Alfred, after his success against the Danes at Wilton in

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River adjacent to the site of the former abbey

Witenagemot
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The Witenaġemot, also known as the Witan was a political institution in Anglo-Saxon England which operated from before the 7th century until the 11th century. The institution is thought to represent a development of the ancient Germanic general assemblies. The terms Witan and Witenagemot are increasingly avoided by historians, although few would go

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Anglo-Saxon king with his witan. Biblical scene in the Illustrated Old English Hexateuch (11th century), portraying Pharaoh in court session, after passing judgment on his chief baker and chief cupbearer

Isle of Wight
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The Isle of Wight /ˈaɪl əv ˈwaɪt/ is a county and the largest and second-most populous island in England. It is located in the English Channel, about 4 miles off the coast of Hampshire, the island has resorts that have been holiday destinations since Victorian times, and is known for its mild climate, coastal scenery, and verdant landscape of field

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An image of the Isle of Wight from the ISS

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Carisbrooke Castle just outside of Carisbrooke

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Osborne House and its grounds are now open to the public

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Eugene Manet on the Isle of Wight, 1875 painting by Berthe Morisot.

Kent
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Kent /ˈkɛnt/ is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south west, the county also shares borders with Essex via the Dartford Crossing and the French department of Pas-de-Calais through the Channel Tunnel. France can be clearly in fine weath

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Kent shown within England

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Title page of William Lambarde 's Perambulation of Kent (completed in 1570, and published in 1576), a historical description of Kent and the first published county history

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The White Cliffs of Dover

Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the

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Edinburgh Castle. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of this early settlement is unclear.

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Flag

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The class I Pictish stone at Aberlemno known as Aberlemno 1 or the Serpent Stone.

Harald III of Norway
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Harald Sigurdsson, given the epithet Hardrada in the sagas, was King of Norway from 1046 to 1066. In addition, he claimed the Danish throne until 1064. Prior to becoming king, Harald had spent around fifteen years in exile as a mercenary and military commander in Kievan Rus, when he was fifteen years old, in 1030, Harald fought in the Battle of Sti

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13th-century portrayal of Harald Hardrada, from The Life of King Edward the Confessor by the English chronicler Matthew Paris.

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Near-contemporary depiction of Byzantine Varangian Guardsmen, in an illumination from the Skylitzis Chronicle.

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Harald's wife Elisiv of Kiev, daughter of Yaroslav the Wise.

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Harald landing near York (left), and defeating the Northumbrian army (right), from the 13th century chronicle The Life of King Edward the Confessor by Matthew Paris. Harald had a huge ship built around 1060, called Ormen ("The Serpent").

Yorkshire
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Yorkshire, formally known as the County of York, is a historic county of Northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Due to its size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been undertaken over time by its subdivisions. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as a geographical territory, Yorksh

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Statue of Constantine I outside York Minster.

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Flag of Yorkshire

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York Minster, western elevation

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Yorkist king Richard III grew up at Middleham.

Battle of Stamford Bridge
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After a bloody battle, both Hardrada and Tostig along with most of the Norwegians were killed. Although Harold Godwinson repelled the Norwegian invaders, his army was defeated by the Normans at Hastings less than three weeks later. The death of King Edward the Confessor of England in January 1066 had triggered a struggle in which a variety of conte

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Painting of the Battle of Stamford Bridge by Peter Nicolai Arbo, depicting King Harald Hardrada hit in the neck by an arrow

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A 19th century illustration for Harald Hardraada saga, Heimskringla

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Village monument

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Stamford Bridge battlefield memorial near Whiterose Drive

Pevensey
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Pevensey is a village and civil parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex, England. The main village is located 5 miles north-east of Eastbourne, one mile inland from Pevensey Bay, the settlement of Pevensey Bay forms part of the parish. It was here that William the Conqueror made the landing in his invasion of England in 1066 after crossing th

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Pevensey High Street

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Early English St. Nicolas Church, the Anglican parish church of Pevensey.

Battle of Hastings
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It took place approximately 7 miles northwest of Hastings, close to the present-day town of Battle, East Sussex, and was a decisive Norman victory. The background to the battle was the death of the childless King Edward the Confessor in January 1066, Harold was crowned king shortly after Edwards death, but faced invasions by William, his own brothe

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The location of the Battle of Stamford Bridge

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Harold Rex Interfectus Est: "King Harold was killed". Scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting the Battle of Hastings and the death of Harold.

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Interior ruins at Pevensey Castle, some of which date to shortly after the Battle of Hastings

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Norman knights and archers at the Battle of Hastings, depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry

London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city

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Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace and Central London skyline

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The name London may derive from the River Thames

Berkhamsted
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Berkhamsted /ˈbɜːrkəmstɛd/ is a medium-sized historic market town on the western edge of Hertfordshire, England. The affluent commuter town is located in the small Bulbourne valley in the Chiltern Hills,26 miles northwest of London, Berkhamsted is a civil parish, with a town council within the larger borough of Dacorum. People have been living in t

1.
Berkhamsted Old Town Hall

2.
An Early Middle Bronze Age (c.1500 to 1300 BC) copper Chisel found in Berkhamsted.

3.
View across the Inner moat towards the bailey walls of Berkhamsted Castle.

4.
A view of the castle motte, moat, middle bank and outer earthworks.

Stigand
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Stigand was an Anglo-Saxon churchman in pre-Norman Conquest England who became Archbishop of Canterbury. His birth date is unknown, but by 1020 he was serving as a royal chaplain and he was named Bishop of Elmham in 1043, and was later Bishop of Winchester and Archbishop of Canterbury. Stigand was as an advisor to members of the Anglo-Saxon and Nor

1.
"Archbishop Stigand" from the Bayeux Tapestry

2.
Emma of Normandy, seated with sons Harthacnut and Edward the Confessor, in this manuscript copy of the Encomium Emmae from about 1042

3.
William I, shown here from the Bayeux Tapestry, at first accepted Stigand's position, but later allowed papal legates to depose him.

4.
Victorian-era fanciful reconstruction of Stigand's coat of arms, from the Winchester Great Hall

Archbishop of Canterbury
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The current archbishop is Justin Welby. His enthronement took place at Canterbury Cathedral on 21 March 2013, Welby is the 105th in a line which goes back more than 1400 years to Augustine of Canterbury, the Apostle to the English, sent from Rome in the year 597. From the time of Augustine in the 6th until the 16th century, during the English Refor

1.
The Archbishop of Canterbury's official London residence is Lambeth Palace, photographed looking east across the River Thames.

2.
Arms of the Archbishop of Canterbury: Azure, an archiepiscopal cross in pale or surmounted by a pall proper charged with four crosses patée fitchée sable

Wallingford, Oxfordshire
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Wallingford is an ancient market town and civil parish in the upper Thames Valley in England. Historically in Berkshire, it was transferred to Oxfordshire in 1974, Wallingford is situated 12 miles north of Reading,13 miles south of Oxford and 11 miles north west of Henley-on-Thames. The towns royal but mostly ruined Wallingford Castle held high sta

1.
The Corn Exchange (left), the war memorial (centre), the Town Hall (centre-right) and St Mary-le-More church (right)

2.
Wallingford Town Council coat of arms

3.
Castle Street and High Street corner

4.
Ruins in the Wallingford Castle Gardens

Exeter
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Exeter is a cathedral city in Devon, England with a population of 127,300. It lies within the county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council, currently, the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district and is therefore under the administration of the County Council. The city is on th

2.
A portion of Exeter's city wall, formed of both Roman and medieval stones.

3.
The gatehouse of Rougemont Castle

4.
Remains of the medieval Exe Bridge, built around 1200

Rougemont Castle
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Rougemont Castle, also known as Exeter Castle, is the historic castle of the city of Exeter, Devon, England. It was built into the corner of the Roman city walls starting in or shortly after the year 1068. In 1136 it was besieged for three months by King Stephen, an outer bailey, of which little now remains, was added later in the 12th century. The

1.
The early Norman gatehouse of Rougemont Castle, with the later court buildings visible behind

2.
A 19th-century engraving of Rougemont Castle from Charles Knight's Old England: A Pictorial Museum, 1845

3.
The plaque on the castle wall commemorating the executions of the Devon Witches in the 1680s

Winchester Castle
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Winchester Castle is a medieval building in Hampshire, England. Only the Great Hall still stands, it houses a museum of the history of Winchester, between 1222–1235, Henry III added the Great Hall, built to a double cube design, measuring 110 ft by 55 ft by 55 ft. The Great Hall is built of flint with dressings, originally it had lower walls. In th

1.
The Great Hall, built by Henry III

2.
The Great Hall

3.
The "Winchester Round Table" in the Great Hall, Dendrochronology dating has placed it at 1275.

4.
Statue of Queen Victoria in the Great Hall

Warwick
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Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England. The town lies upon the River Avon,11 miles south of Coventry and just west of Leamington Spa, at the 2011 United Kingdom census, it had a population of 31,345. There was human activity at Warwick as early as the Neolithic period and it was a Saxon burh in the 9th century, Warwick Castle was estab

1.
A view over Warwick

2.
Lord Leycester hospital by the west gate, Warwick

3.
The Eastgate, Warwick

4.
Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick

Nottingham
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Nottingham is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, England, located 128 miles north of London, in the East Midlands. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robin Hood and to the lace-making, bicycle and it was granted its city charter in 1897 as part of Queen Victorias Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Nottingham is a tourist destinatio

1.
Gyrth and his brother's death at the Battle of Hastings, scene 52 of the Bayeux Tapestry. HIC CECIDERUNT LEWINE ET GYRD FRATRES HAROLDI REGIS (Here have fallen dead Leofwine and Gyrth, brothers of King Harold)